ROUTIEDGE'S  COUNTRY  BOOKS 


GLAUCUS 


LIBRARY 

University   oi   California 

IRVINE 


GLAUCUS 

OR  THE  WONDERS   OF   THE   SEA- SHORE 


BEYOND  the  shadow  of  the  ship 

I  watch'd  the  water  snakes  ; 

They  moved  in  tracks  of  shining  white, 

And  when  they  rear'd,  the  eltish  light 

Pell  off  in  hoary  flakes. 


O  happy  living  things  !  no  tongue 
Their  beauty  might  declare  : 
A  spring  of  love  gush'd  from  my  heart, 
And  I  bless'd  them  unaware. 


COLERIDGE'S  Ancient  Mariner 


GLAUCUS 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE  SEA-SHORE 


CHAELES   KLNGSLEY   F.L.S.   &c. 

Author  of  "  Westward  Ho!"  " Hypalia,"  etc. 


NEW  EDITION  (1904) 


WITH    A    FEW   NOTES    AND    NUMEKOUS    ILLUSTRATIONS 


LONDON 

GEOKGE  ROUTLEDGE  &  SONS,   LBHTED 
NEW  YORK:    E.   P.   DUTTON  &   CO. 


/lot- 


PLYMOUTH 

ULLIAM   BRENDON 

PRINTERS 


PUBLISHERS'    NOTE 

ALL  that  seems  necessary  to  state  with  regard  to  a 
new  edition  of  Charles  Kingsley's  well-known  book, 
"Glaucus,"  which  has  for  so  long  held  its  own  amongst 
popular  books  on  aquarian  zoology,  relates  to  such 
alterations  as  cause  it  to  vary  from  its  predecessors. 
In  this  respect  the  present  volume  makes  a  con- 
siderable claim.  It  now  appears  for  the  first  time 
illustrated  fully  with  text-cuts,  which  have  been 
derived  largely  from  the  works  of  Mr.  George 
Johnston  and  Professor  Harvey,  so  frequently  ex- 
tolled by  the  author  in  the  book  itself;  and  eight 
coloured  plates  from  Mr.  P.  H.  Gosse's  "Aquarium," 
a  work  to  which  the  author  refers  more  than  once, 
and  which  held  a  high  place  in  his  esteem.  A  few 
footnotes,  all  of  which  are  indicated  by  square 
brackets,  have  been  added,  supplying  information 
which  will  serve  to  render  the  text  intelligible 
where  a  knowledge  in  readers  of  to-day  which 
was  possessed  by  those  a  half  a  century  ago  is 
presupposed.  The  "  List  of  Modern  Books  Kecom- 
mended"  replaces  a  similar  List  in  the  old  book. 

G.  R.  &  S.,  LD. 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTEATIONS 


Actinia  bellis  .         .145 

,,  chiococca  .  PL  v,  7 
,,  crassicornis .  .  144 
,,  dianthus  .  .124 
,,  mesembryanthe- 

mum,  143  ;  PL  v,  1-6 

See  also  Sagartia. 

Actinoloba  dianthus  PL  i,  1 
Adamsia  palliata  PI.  iii,  7,  8 
Aiptasia  Couchii  .  PL  iv,  3 
Alcyonium  digitatum  .  30 
Amphidotus  cordatus  .  62 
Antennularia  antennina  .  57 
Anthea  cereus  PL  iv,  2  ;  v,  9 
Aureliania  augusta  .  PL  viii,  11 
,,  heterocera  PL  viii,  12 

Balanus  porcatus     .  .       55 

Bell- fish        .             .  .118 

Bird's-foot  Sea-star  .     122 

Black  Goby.             .  .118 
Bolosera  eques          .   PL  viii,  6 

,,       tuediae        .  PL  iv,  1 
Brittle-star,  Common       .     122 

Bunodes  coronata    .  PL  vi,  1 

Campanularia  integra       .     133 

,,  syriuga       .       59 

Capnea  sanguinea    .  PL  viii,  13 

Caryophyllia  Smithii        .       81 

Cellepora  cervicornis        .       87 

,,       pumicosa.         .       86 

Cellularia  ciliata      .         .       60 

Cerianthus  Lloydii  .      PL  vi,  8 

Conchula  and   mouth   of 

Peachia  hastata  .  .  65 
Coryne  ramosa  .  .  133 
Corynactis  viridis  PL  viii,  1,  5 
Crab,  Thornback  .  .  130 
Crisia  eburnea  .  .134 
Cucumaria  communis  94 


Cucumaria  Pentactes  .       81 

,,          Planci     .  .    '    94 

Cuttle-fish  and  '  pen '  .     118 

Cyprsea  europsea       .  .101 


'  Dead  Man's  Hand 

Diatoms 

Doris 


Echinus  miliaris  .  .  89 
Edwardsia  callimorpha  PL  vi,  7 
,,  carnea  .  PL  vi,  5,  6 
Egg-Urchin,  Purple-tipped  89 
Eolis  papillosa  .  .  93 


Fissurella  grreca 
Flustra  foliacea 


Gobius  niger  .         .118 

Gregoria  fenestrata  .      PL  vi,  3 

Halcampa  chrysanthellum 

PL  vi,  9,  10 

,,        microps       PL  vi,  11 

Heart- Urchin,  Common  .       62 

,,  Purple       .     122 

Hinnites  pusio         .         .100 

Hormathia  margaritre    PL  vii,  1 

lolyanthus  Mitchelii      PL  vii,  6 

Laminaria  digitata  .  .  49 
Littorina  littorea  .  .  101 
Lutraria  elliptica  .  .  48 


Maia  squinado 
Mangelia 

Nassa  reticulata 
Nerita  polita 
,,     pulligera 

Oar-weed 


130 
101 

101 
147 
147 

49 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Ophiocoma  rosula     .  .     122 

Pagurus  Bernhardi  .  .       61 

Palmipes  raembranaceus  .     122 

Peachia  hastata        .  PI.  vii,  3 

,,        undata         .  PI.  vii,  4 

Pharus  legumen       .  .       54 

Pliellia  Brodricii      .  PI.  vii,  2 

,,       gausapata     .  PI.  vi,  1 

,,       murocincta  .  PI.  vi,  2 

Pholas  dactylus        .  .       78 

Pipe-fish       .             .  .118 

Plumularia  cristata .  .       58 

falcata  .  .       58 

, ,         myriophyllum      58 

Sagartia  bellis  .        PI.  i,  2 

,,        chrysosplenium  Pl.v,8 

,,        coccinea     .      PI.  iv,  4 

,,        ichthystoma     PI.  ii,  7 

miniata     PI.  ii,  2,  3,4 

,,        nivea          .  PI.  ii,  1, 8 

,,        ornata         PI.  ii,  9,  10 

pallida       .  PI.  iii,  4,5 

,,        parasitica  .         .       61 

pura  .      PI.  iii,  6 

rosea          PI.  i,  4,  5,  6 

,,       sphyrodeta    PI.  i,  8,  9 

,,       troglodites,  119  ;  PI.  i, 

3  ;   ii,  5  ;   iii,  1,  2  ; 

iv,  5 

,,        venusta      .        PL  i,  7 
viduata   PI.  iii,  3 ;  v,  10 
See  also  Actinia. 
Saxicava  rugosa       .         .100 
Sea-cucumber,  Angular    .       81 
Sea-star,  Bird's-foot         .     122 
Serpula  contortuplicata    .     121 

56 
filicula     .  56 


Sertularia  abietina  . 
,,        argentea 


, ,        rosacea     . 
Sipunculus  Bernhardi 
Solaster  papposa 
Solen  eiisis  . 


Solen  vagina            .  .54 

Spatangus  purpureus  .     122 

Star-fish,  Five-finger  .     157 

Stomphia  Churchire  PI.  vii,  5 

Sun-star       .  .     122 

Synapta  digitata      .  .       76 

Syngnathus  acus      .  .118 

Tealia  digitata          .  PI.  v,  10 

Thornback  Crab       .  .     130 

Trochus  ziziphanus  .  .     148 

Tubulipora  hispida  .  .       86 

,,  patina  .  .  85 
Turbinolia  milletiana  .  88 
Turritella  communis, 

foot  of  this  page. 

Uraster  rubcns          .  .     157 

Virgularia  mirabilis  .       29 

Zoanthus  Alderi      .  PI.  viii,  8 
,,       Couchii     PI.  viii,  9, 10 

.,        sulcatus    .  PI.  viii,  7 


Turritella  communis. 


GLAUCUS 

OK 

THE  WONDERS  OF  THE  SEA-SHORE 


YOU  are  going  down,  perhaps,  by  railway,  to 
pass  your  usual  six  weeks  at  some  watering- 
place  along  the  coast,  and  as  you  roll  along  think 
more  than  once,  and  that  not  over-cheerfully,  of 
what  you  shall  do  when  you  get  there.  You  are 
half  tired,  half  ashamed,  of  making  one  more  in  the 
ignoble  army  of  idlers  who  saunter  about  the  cliffs 
and  sands  and  quays,  to  whom  every  wharf  is  but 
a  '  wharf  of  Lethe ',  by  which  they  rot  '  dull  as  the 
oozy  weed '.  You  foreknow  your  doom  by  sad  ex- 
perience. A  great  deal  of  dressing,  a  lounge  in  the 
club-room,  a  stare  out  of  the  window  with  the 
telescope,  an  attempt  to  take  a  bad  sketch,  a  walk 
up  one  parade  and  down  another,  interminable  read- 
ing of  the  silliest  of  novels,  over  which  you  fall 
asleep  on  a  bench  in  the  sun  and  probably  have 
your  umbrella  stolen,  a  purposeless  fine-weather 
sail  in  a  yacht,  accompanied  by  many  ineffectual 
attempts  to  catch  a  mackerel,  and  the  consumption 
of  many  cigars ;  while  your  boys  deafen  your  ears, 
and  endanger  your  personal  safety,  by  blazing  away 


2  GLAUCUS 

at  innocent  gulls  and  willocks,  who  go  off  to  die 
slowly ;  a  sport  which  you  feel  to  be  wanton,  and 
cowardly,  and  cruel,  and  yet  cannot  find  in  your 
heart  to  stop,  because  'the  lads  have  nothing  else 
to  do,  and  at  all  events  it  keeps  them  out  of  the 
billiard-room ' ;  and  after  all,  and  worst  of  all,  at 
night  a  soulless  rechauffd  of  third-rate  London  frivo- 
lity :  this  is  the  life-in-death  in  which  thousands 
spend  the  golden  weeks  of  summer,  and  in  which 
you  confess  with  a  sigh  that  you  are  going  to  spend 
them. 

Now  I  will  not  be  so  rude  as  to  apply  to  you  the 
old  hymn  distich  about  one  who 

" finds  some  mischief  still 

For  idle  hands  to  do  " 

but  does  it  not  seem  to  you  that  there  must  surely 
be  many  a  thing  worth  looking  at  earnestly,  and 
thinking  over  earnestly,  in  a  world  like  this,  about 
the  making  of  the  least  part  whereof  God  has  em- 
ployed ages  and  ages,  further  back  than  wisdom 
can  guess  or  imagination  picture,  and  upholds  that 
least  part  every  moment  by  laws  and  forces  so  com- 
plex and  so  wonderful,  that  science,  when  it  tries 
to  fathom  them,  can  only  learn  how  little  it  can 
learn  ?  And  does  it  not  seem  to  you  that  six 
weeks'  rest,  free  from  the  cares  of  town  business, 
and  the  whirlwind  of  town  pleasure,  could  not  be 
better  spent  than  in  examining  those  wonders  a 
little,  instead  of  wandering  up  and  down  like  the 
many,  still  wrapt  up  each  in  their  little  world  of 
vanity  and  self-interest,  unconscious  of  what  and 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE       3 

where  they  really  are,  as  they  gaze  lazily  around  at 
earth  and  sea  and  sky,  and  have 

"  No  speculation  in  those  eyes 
Which  they  do  glare  withal"  1 

Why  not,  then,  try  to  discover  a  few  of  the  wonders 
of  the  shore  ?  For  wonders  there  are  there  around 
you  at  every  step,  stranger  than  ever  opium-eater 
dreamed,  and  yet  to  be  seen  at  no  greater  expense 
than  a  very  little  time  and  trouble. 

Perhaps  you  smile,  in  answer,  at  the  notion  of 
becoming  a  '  Naturalist ' :  and  yet  you  cannot  deny 
that  there  must  be  a  fascination  in  the  study  of 
natural  history,  though  what  it  is  is  as  yet  un- 
known to  you.  Your  daughters,  perhaps,  have  been 
seized  with  the  prevailing  '  Pteridomania ',  and  are 
collecting  and  buying  ferns,  with  Ward's  cases 
wherein  to  keep  them  (for  which  you  have  to 
pay),  and  wrangling  over  unpronounceable  names 
of  species  (which  seem  to  be  different  in  each  new 
Fern-book  that  they  buy),  till  the  Pteridomania 
seems  to  you  somewhat  of  a  bore :  and  yet  you 
cannot  deny  that  they  find  an  enjoyment  in  it,  and 
are  more  active,  more  cheerful,  more  self-forgetful 
over  it,  than  they  would  have  been  over  novels  and 
gossip,  crochet  and  Berlin-wool.  At  least  you  will 
confess  that  the  abomination  of  '  Fancy-work  '— 
that  standing  cloak  for  dreamy  idleness  (not  to 
mention  the  injury  which  it  does  to  poor  starving 
needlewomen) — has  all  but  vanished  from  your 
drawing-room  since  the  '  Lady-ferns '  and  '  Venus's 
hair '  appeared ;  and  that  you  could  not  help  your- 


4  GLAUCUS 

self  looking  now  and  then  at  the  said  'Venus's 
hair ',  and  agreeing  that  nature's  real  beauties  were 
somewhat  superior  to  the  ghastly  woollen  carica- 
tures which  they  had  superseded. 

You  cannot  deny,  I  say,  that  there  is  a  fascination 
in  this  same  Natural  History.  For  do  not  you,  the 
London  merchant,  recollect  how  but  last  summer 
your  douce  and  portly  head-clerk  was  seized  by  two 
keepers  in  the  act  of  wandering  in  Epping  Forest 
at  dead  of  night,  with  a  dark  lantern,  a  jar  of 
strange  sweet  compound,  and  innumerable  pocket- 
fuls  of  pill-boxes;  and  found  it  very  difficult  to 
make  either  his  captors  or  you  believe  that  he  was 
going  neither  to  burn  wheat-ricks,  nor  to  poison 
pheasants,  but  was  simply  'sugaring  the  trees  for 
moths ',  as  a  blameless  entomologist  ?  And  when, 
in  self-justification,  he  took  you  to  his  house  in 
Islington,  and  showed  you  the  glazed  and  corked 
drawers  full  of  delicate  insects,  which  had  evidently 
cost  him  in  the  collecting  the  spare  hours  of  many 
busy  years,  and  many  a  pound,  too,  out  of  his  small 
salary,  were  you  not  a  little  puzzled  to  make  out 
what  spell  there  could  be  in  those  '  useless '  moths, 
to  draw  out  of  his  warm  bed,  twenty  miles  down 
the  Eastern  Counties  Eailway,  and  into  the  damp 
forest  like  a  deer-stealer,  a  sober  white-headed 
Tim  Linkinwater  like  him,  your  very  best  man  of 
business,  given  to  the  reading  of  Scotch  political 
economy,  and  gifted  with  peculiarly  clear  notions 
on  the  currency  question  ? 

It  is  puzzling,  truly.  I  shall  be  very  glad  if  these 
pages  help  you  somewhat  toward  solving  the  puzzle. 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE       5 

We  shall  agree  at  least  that  the  study  of  Natural 
History  has  become  nowadays  an  honourable  one. 
A  Cromarty  stonemason  was  till  lately — God  rest 
his  noble  soul! — the  most  important  man  in  the 
city  of  Edinburgh,  by  dint  of  a  work  on  fossil 
fishes;  and  the  successful  investigator  of  the 
minutest  animals  takes  place  unquestioned  among 
men  of  genius,  and,  like  the  philosopher  of  old 
Greece,  is  considered,  by  virtue  of  his  science,  fit 
company  for  dukes  and  princes.  Nay,  the  study 
is  now  more  than  honourable ;  it  is  (what  to  many 
readers  will  be  a  far  higher  recommendation)  even 
fashionable.  Every  well-educated  person  is  eager  to 
know  something  at  least  of  the  wonderful  organic 
forms  which  surround  him  in  every  sunbeam  and 
every  pebble ;  and  books  of  Natural  History  are 
finding  their  way  more  and  more  into  drawing- 
rooms  and  school-rooms,  and  exciting  greater  thirst 
for  a  knowledge  which,  even  twenty  years  ago,  was 
considered  superfluous  for  all  but  the  professional 
student. 

What  a  change  from  the  temper  of  two  genera- 
tions since,  when  the  naturalist  was  looked  on  as 
a  harmless  enthusiast,  who  went  '  bug-hunting ', 
simply  because  he  had  not  spirit  to  follow  a  fox ! 
There  are  those  alive  who  can  recollect  an  amiable 
man  being  literally  bullied  out  of  the  New  Forest, 
because  he  dared  to  make  a  collection  (at  this 
moment,  we  believe,  in  some  unknown  abyss  of  that 
great  Avernus,  the  British  Museum)  of  fossil  shells 
from  those  very  Hordwell  Cliffs,  for  exploring  which 
there  is  now  established  a  society  of  subscribers 


6  GLATTCUS 

and  correspondents.  They  can  remember,  too, 
when,  on  the  first  appearance  of  Bewick's  "  British 
Birds",  the  excellent  sportsman  who  brought  it 
down  to  the  Forest  was  asked,  Why  on  earth  he 
had  brought  a  book  about  'cock  sparrows',  and 
had  to  justify  himself  again  and  again,  simply  by 
lending  the  book  to  his  brother  sportsmen,  to  con- 
vince them  that  there  were  rather  more  than  a 
dozen  sorts  of  birds  (as  they  then  held)  indigenous 
to  Hampshire.  But  the  book,  perhaps,  which  turned 
the  tide  in  favour  of  Natural  History,  among  the 
higher  classes  at  least,  in  the  south  of  England,  was 
White's  "  History  of  Selborne " l.  A  Hampshire 
gentleman  and  sportsman,  whom  everybody  knew, 
had  taken  the  trouble  to  write  a  book  about  the 
birds  and  the  weeds  in  his  own  parish,  and  the 
everyday  things  which  went  on  under  his  eyes 
and  every  one  else's.  And  all  gentlemen,  from  the 
Weald  of  Kent  to  the  Vale  of  Blackmore,  shrugged 
their  shoulders  mysteriously,  and  said  "Poor  fel- 

1  [Gilbert  White  was  born  in  1720  at  Selborne,  in  Hampshire, 
educated  in  Basingstoke  and  at  Oxford,  where  he  was  made  a 
Fellow  of  Oriel  in  1744.  He  entered  the  Church,  and,  after  filling 
a  curacy  at  Swarraton,  became  curate  to  the  Vicar  of  Selborne  in 
1751,  later  being  made  Dean  of  Oriel,  and  subsequently  serving  as 
curate  or  incumbent  at  Durley,  Moreton-Pinkney,  Faringdon  near 
Selborne,  and  West  Deane  successively.  His  "Natural  History 
and  Antiquities  of  Selborne  ",  which  originated  in  a  correspond- 
ence between  him  and  Thomas  Pennant,  the  famous  eighteenth- 
century  naturalist,  was  first  published  by  Benjamin  White,  the 
author's  brother,  in  1789.  It  has  been  frequently  edited  with 
notes,  the  1837  edition  of  Thomas  Bell,  which  was  re-edited  in 
1875  by  J.  E.  Harting,  with  Thomas  Bewick's  woodcuts  (Sonnen- 
scheiu),  being  the  standard  edition.  Cheap,  illustrated  editions 
are  published  by  Routledge  at  2/-,  2/6,  3/6,  and  5/-.  White  died 
in  1793  at  his  house  in  Selborne,  and  is  buried  in  the  churchyard 
there.] 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE       7 

low ! "  till  they  opened  the  book  itself,  and  dis- 
covered to  their  surprise  that  it  read  like  any  novel. 
And  then  came  a  burst  of  confused,  but  honest, 
admiration ;  from  the  young  squire's  "  Bless  me ! 
who  would  have  thought  that  there  were  so  many 
wonderful  things  to  be  seen  in  one's  own  park ! " 
to  the  old  squire's  more  morally  valuable  "Bless 
me !  why  I  have  seen  that  and  that  a  hundred 
times,  and  never  thought  till  now  how  wonderful 
they  were ! " 

There  were  great  excuses,  though,  of  old,  for  the 
contempt  in  which  the  naturalist  was  held ;  great 
excuses  for  the  pitying  tone  of  banter  with  which 
the  Spectator  talks  of  '  the  ingenious '  Don  Saltero 
(as  no  doubt  the  Neapolitan  gentlemen  talked  of 
Ferrante  Imperato,  the  apothecary,  and  his  mu- 
seum) ;  great  excuses  for  Voltaire,  when  he  classes 
the  collection  of  butterflies  among  the  other  "  bigar- 
rures  de  1'esprit  humain  ".  For,  in  the  last  genera- 
tion, the  needs  of  the  world  were  different.  It 
had  no  time  for  butterflies  and  fossils.  While 
Buonaparte  was  hovering  on  the  Boulogne  coast, 
the  pursuits  and  the  education  which  were  needed 
were  such  as  would  raise  up  men  to  fight  him ; 
so  the  coarse,  fierce,  hard-handed  training  of  our 
grandfathers  came  when  it  was  wanted,  and  did 
the  work  which  was  required  of  it,  else  we  had  not 
been  here  now.  Let  us  be  thankful  that  we  have 
had  leisure  for  science ;  and  show  now  in  war  that 
our  science  has  at  least  not  unmanned  us. 

Moreover,  Natural  History,  if  not  fifty  years  ago, 
certainly  a  hundred  years  ago,  was  hardly  worthy 


8  GLAUCUS 

of  men  of  practical  common  sense1.  After,  indeed, 
Linne,  by  his  invention  of  generic  and  specific 
names,  had  made  classification  possible,  and  by  his 
own  enormous  labours  had  shown  how  much  could 
be  done  when  once  a  method  was  established,  the 
science  has  grown  rapidly  enough.  But  before  him 
little  or  nothing  had  been  put  into  form  definite 
enough  to  allure  those  who  (as  the  many  always 
will)  prefer  to  profit  by  other's  discoveries,  rather 
than  to  discover  for  themselves ;  and  Natural  His- 
tory was  attractive  only  to  a  few  earnest  seekers, 
who  found  too  much  trouble  in  disencumbering 
their  own  minds  of  the  dreams  of  bygone  genera- 
tions (whether  facts,  like  cockatrices,  basilisks,  and 
krakens,  the  breeding  of  bees  out  of  a  dead  ox, 
and  of  geese  from  barnacles — or  theories,  like  those 
of  the  four  elements,  the  vis  plastrix  in  Nature, 
animal  spirits,  and  the  other  musty  heirlooms  of 
Aristotleism  and  Neo-platonism),  to  try  to  make 
a  science  popular  which  as  yet  was  not  even  a 
science  at  all.  Honour  to  them,  nevertheless. 
Honour  to  Kay2  and  his  illustrious  contemporaries 

1  [The  first  draft  of  this  book  was  an  article  published  in  "  The 
North  British  Review"  for  November,  1854.] 

2  [John  Ray,  b.  1627,  d.  1705,  educated  at  Cambridge,  pub- 
lished, amongst  other  natural-history  books  still  of  great  historical 
interest,  "Methodus  Plantartnn  Nova",  which  first  showed  the 
true  nature  of  buds,  and  employed  the  division  of  flowering  plants 
into  dicotyledons  and  monocotyledons ;  and  a  "Historia  Plantarum" 
in  three  volumes,  1686-1704.     He  later  devoted  his  attention  to 
the  Insecta,  leaving  a  MS.  behind  him  which  adopted  a  classifica- 
tion almost  the  same  as  that  now  accepted.     His  herbarium  was 
placed  in  the  British  Museum  (Botanical  Section)  in  18C2.     His 
varied  services  to  science  fully  justify  the  title  of  '  The  Father  of 
English  Natural  History',  which  has  been  applied  to  him.] 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE        9 

in  Holland  and  France.  Honour  to  Seba1  and 
Aldrovandus2 ;  to  Pomet3,  with  his  "Historic  of 
Drugges  " ;  even  to  the  ingenious  Don  Saltero4,  and 
his  tavern-museum  in  Cheyne  Walk.  Where  all 
was  chaos,  every  man  was  useful  who  could  con- 
tribute a  single  spot  of  organised  standing-ground 
in  the  shape  of  a  fact  or  a  specimen.  But  it  is  a 
question  whether  Natural  History  would  have  ever 
attained  its  present  honours,  had  not  Geology 
arisen,  to  connect  every  other  branch  of  Natural 
History  with  problems  as  vast  and  awful  as  they 
are  captivating  to  the  imagination.  Nay,  the  very 
opposition  with  which  Geology  met  was  of  as  great 
benefit  to  the  sister  sciences  as  to  itself.  For, 
when  questions  belonging  to  the  most  sacred  here- 
ditary beliefs  of  Christendom  were  supposed  to  be 
effected  by  the  verification  of  a  fossil  shell,  or  the 
proving  that  the  Maestricht  'homo  diluvii  testis' 
was,  after  all,  a  monstrous  eft,  it  became  necessary 
to  work  upon  Conchology,  Botany,  and  Comparative 
Anatomy,  with  a  care  and  a  reverence,  a  caution 
and  a  severe  induction  which  had  been  never  before 

1  [Albert  Seba,  an  eminent  naturalist,  born  in  East  Friesland  in 
1665,  and  died  in  1736.     His  chief  work  is  entitled  "  Locupletis- 
simi  rerum  naturalium  thesauri  accurata  Descriptio  et  iconibus 
artificiosissimis  Expressio",  1734-65.] 

2  [Ulysses  Aldrovandi,  an  Italian  naturalist,  born  in  1522  at 
Bologna,  at  which  University  he,  in  1560,  became  Professor  of 
Natural  History.      In   1568  he  established   a   Botanical   Garden 
there.     His  chief  work,  entitled  "  Ornithologia  ",  was  published 
from  1599  to  1606.     Died  1607.] 

3  [Pierre  Pomet,  a  French  botanist,  born  in  Paris  in  1658  ; 
died  1699.] 

4  [James  Salter,  proprietor  of  'Don  Saltero's  Coffee-house'  at 
Chelsea,  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  where  he  made  a 
large  collection  of  curiosities,  which  weise  sold  by  auction  in  1799.] 


10  GLAUCUS 

applied  to  them;  and  thus  gradually,  in  the  last 
half-century,  the  whole  choir  of  cosmical  sciences 
have  acquired  a  soundness,  severity,  and  fulness 
which  render  them,  as  mere  intellectual  exercises, 
as  valuable  to  a  manly  mind  as  Mathematics  and 
Metaphysics. 

But  how  very  lately  have  they  attained  that  firm 
and  honourable  standing-ground  !  It  is  a  question 
whether,  even  twenty  years  ago,  Geology,  as  it  then 
stood,  was  worth  troubling  one's  head  about,  so 
little  had  been  really  proved.  And  heavy  and  up- 
hill was  the  work,  even  within  the  last  fifteen  years, 
of  those  who  steadfastly  set  themselves  to  the  task 
of  proving  and  of  asserting,  at  all  risks,  that  the 
Maker  of  the  coal  seam  and  the  diluvial  cave  could 
not  be  a  '  Deus  quidarn  deceptor  ',  and  that  the  facts 
which  the  rock  and  the  silt  revealed  were  sacred, 
not  to  be  warped  or  trifled  with  for  the  sake  of  any 
cowardly  and  hasty  notion  that  they  contradicted 
His  other  messages.  When  a  few  more  years  are 
past,  Buckland1  and  Sedgwick2,  Murchison3  and 

1  [William  Buckland,  a  geologist,  educated  at  Winchester  and 
Oxford,  became  Professor  of  Mineralogy  at  Oxford  in  1813,  and 
Reader  in    Geology   in    1819  ;    later,    Canon   of   Christ   Church, 
and  Dean  of  Westminster,   1845-56.      Wrote  geological  papers, 
and    tried   to   reconcile   the  Mosaic  account  of  the   Flood   with 
modern  science.] 

2  [Adam  Sedgwick,  a  famous  geologist  and  Professor  of  Geology 
at  Cambridge,  born  1785  and  died  1873.     He  published  a  multitude 
of  papers  in  scientific  magazines  on  geological  and  other  subjects  ; 
and  did  much  towards  augmenting  the  geological  collection  of  his 
University.] 

3  [Roderick  Impey  Murchison,  born  1792,  knighted  1846,  made 
baronet  1866  ;  having  served  in  the  army  in  Portugal,  Sicily,  and 
Ireland,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  older  masses  underlying  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  '  Silurian.'    His 
"Silurian  System",  his  chefd'ceuvre,  appeared  in  1838.    Died  1871.] 


THE   WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE      11 

Lyell1,  Delabeche2  and  Phillips3,  Forbes4  and 
Jameson5,  and  the  group  of  brave  men  who  accom- 
panied and  followed  them,  will  be  looked  back  to 
as  moral  benefactors  of  their  race ;  and  almost  as 
martyrs,  also,  when  it  is  remembered  how  much 
misunderstanding,  obloquy,  and  plausible  folly  they 
had  to  endure  from  well-meaning  fanatics  like  Fair- 
holme6  or  Granville  Penn7,  and  the  respectable 
mob  at  their  heels,  who  tried  (as  is  the  fashion  in 
such  cases)  to  make  a  hollow  compromise  between 
fact  and  the  Bible,  by  twisting  facts  just  enough  to 
make  them  fit  the  fancied  meaning  of  the  Bible, 
and  the  Bible  just  enough  to  make  it  fit  the  fancied 

1  [Charles  Lycll,  born  1797,  studied  geology  under  Buckland  ; 
author  of  the  epoch-making  "Principles  of  Geology",  3  vols., 
1830-3,   "Elementary  Geology",  etc.     Created  baronet  in  1864, 
and  died  1875.] 

2  [Henry  Thomas  Delabeche,  an  English  geologist,  born  in  1796, 
knighted  in  1848,  and  died  in   1855;   author  of  a  "Geological 
Manual"  (1830)  and  numerous  papers  in  scientific  journals,  which 
gave  him  a  European  reputation.     In  1853  he  was  elected  a  member 
of  the  Institute  of  France.] 

3  [John  Phillips,  born  1800,  Professor  of  Geology  at  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  President  of  the  Geological  Society  1859,  1860  ; 
wrote  over  100  papers  on  scientific  subjects,  and  books  on  Geology.] 

4  [David  Forbes,  born  1828,  eminent  as  a  geologist  and  philolo- 
gist, Secretary  to  the  Geological  Society  1871-6,  was  one  of  the 
first  to  apply  the  microscope  to  the  study  of  rocks.     He  wrote 
fifty-eight  important  contributions  to  scientific  journals.] 

5  [Robert  Jameson,  a  Scottish  mineralogist  and  geologist,  born 
1774;  author  of  "Mineralogy  of  the  Scottish  Isles"  (1800),  and 
other  scientific  works.] 

6  [George  Fairholme,  author  of  "  A  General  View  of  the  Geology 
of  Scripture,  in  which  the  unerring  truth  of  the  inspired  narrative 
is  exhibited"  (8vo,  1838),  and  "  New  and  Conclusive  Physical  De- 
monstrations of  the  Fact  and  Period  of  the  Mosaic  Deluge,"  etc. 
(8vo,  1838).] 

7  [Granville  Penn  (1761-1844),  grandson  of  William  Penn,  the 
Quaker  founder  of  Pennsylvania,  of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford  ; 
author  of  controversial  works,  books  on  Christian  Evidences,  etc.] 


12  GLAUCUS 

meaning  of  the  facts.  But  there  were  a  few  who 
would  have  no  compromise,  who  laboured  on  with 
a  noble  recklessness,  determined  to  speak  the  thing 
which  they  had  seen,  and  neither  more  nor  less, 
sure  that  G-od  could  take  better  care  than  they  of 
His  own  everlasting  truth ;  and  now  they  have 
conquered ;  the  facts  which  were  twenty  years  ago 
denounced  as  contrary  to  Eevelation  are  at  last 
accepted  not  merely  as  consonant  with  but  as  cor- 
roborative thereof;  and  sound  practical  geologists 
— like  Hugh  Miller1,  in  his  "Footprints  of  the 
Creator",  and  Professor  Sedgwick,  in  the  invaluable 
notes  to  his  "Discourse  on  the  Studies  of  Cam- 
bridge"— are  wielding  in  defence  of  Christianity 
the  very  science  which  was  faithlessly  and  cowardly 
expected  to  subvert  it2. 

1  [Hugh  Miller,  born  1802,  a  stonemason  by  trade,  who  gained 
a  wide  public  for  his  works,  the  chief  of  which  are  "The  Old  Red 
Sandstone"  (1841),  "Footprints  of  the  Creator"  (1847),   "The 
Testimony  of  the  Rocks"  (1857),  etc.     Died  1856.] 

2  It  is  with  real  pain  that  I  have  seen  my  friend  Mr.  Gosse, 
since  this  book  was  written,   make  a  step   in   the   direction   of 
obscurantism,  which  I  can  only  call  desperate,  by  publishing  a 
book  called  "Omphalos".     In  it  he  tries  to  vindicate  what  he 
thinks  (though  very  few  good  Christians  do  so  now)  to  be  the 
teaching  of  Scripture  about   Creation,   by  the   supposition   that 
fossils  are  not   the  remains  of  plants  and   animals  which  have 
actually  existed,  but  may  have  been  created  as  they  are  and  where 
they  are,  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  Divine  mind  ;  and  that  there- 
fore the  whole  science,   not  merely  of  palaeontology,  but  (as  he 
seems  to  forget)  of  geognosy  also,  is  based  on  a  mistake,  and 
cannot  truly  exist,  save  as  a  play  of  the  fancy. 

It  seems  to  me  that  such  a  notion  is  more  likely  to  make  infidels 
than  to  cure  them.  For  what  rational  man  who  knows  even  a 
little  of  geology  will  not  be  tempted  to  say — If  Scripture  can  be 
vindicated  only  by  such  an  outrage  to  common  sense  and  fact,  then 
I  will  give  up  Scripture,  and  stand  by  common  sense  ?  For  my 
part,  I  have  seen  no  book  for  some  years  past  which  I  should  more 
carefully  keep  out  of  the  hands  of  the  young.  I  am  sorry  to  have 
to  say  this  of  the  work  of  a  friend,  both  because  he  is  my  friend, 


P.  H.  G.  Del. 

1,8.     SAGARTIA  NIVEA.  6. 

2,3.4.     S.                    MINIATA.  7. 

5.     S.                    TROGLODYTES.  9, 1O. 


1Q  Andre  &  Sleigh,  Ltd. 
S.  PARASITICA. 
S.  ICTHYSTOMA. 
S.  ORNATA. 


THE   WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE      13 

But  if  you  seek,  reader,  rather  for  pleasure  than 
for  wisdom,  you  can  find  it  in  such  studies,  pure 
and  imdefiled. 

Happy,  truly,  is  the  Naturalist.  He  has  no  time 
for  melancholy  dreams.  The  earth  becomes  to  him 
transparent ;  everywhere  he  sees  significancies,  har- 
monies, laws,  chains  of  cause  and  effect  endlessly 
interlinked,  which  draw  him  out  of  the  narrow 
sphere  of  self-interest  and  self-pleasing,  into  a  pure 
and  wholesome  region  of  solemn  joy  and  wonder. 
He  goes  up  some  Snowdon  valley ;  to  him  it  is  a 
solemn  spot  (though  unnoticed  by  his  companions), 
where  the  stag's-horn  clubmoss  ceases  to  straggle 
across  the  turf,  and  the  tufted  alpine  clubmoss  takes 
its  place :  for  he  is  now  in  a  new  world ;  a  region 
whose  climate  is  eternally  influenced  by  some  fresh 
law  (after  which  he  vainly  guesses  with  a  sigh  at 
his  own  ignorance),  which  renders  life  impossible 
to  one  species,  possible  to  another.  And  it  is  a  still 
more  solemn  thought  to  him,  that  it  was  not  always 
so ;  that  aeons  and  ages  back  that  rock  which  he 
passed  a  thousand  feet  below  was  fringed,  not  as 
now  with  fern,  and  blue  bugle,  and  white  bramble- 
flowers,  but  perhaps  with  the  alp -rose  and  the 
'Gemsen-kraut'  of  Mont  Blanc,  at  least  with  Alpine 
Saxifrages  which  have  now  retreated  a  thousand 
feet  up  the  mountain-side,  and  with  the  blue  Snow- 
Gentian,  and  the  Canadian  Ledum,  which  have  all 

and  because  there  arc  thoughts  therein,  about  the  creative  workings 
of  the  Divine  mind,  which,  however  misapplied,  are  full  of  deep 
truth  and  beauty,  and  are  too  much  forgotten  nowadays.  But, 
as  Aristotle  says  where  he  diil'ers  from  Plato,  "Truth  and  Plato 
are  both  my  friends  ;  but  it  is  a  sacred  duty  to  prefer  Truth  ". 


14  GLAUCUS 

but  vanished  out  of  the  British  Isles.  And  what 
is  it  which  tells  him  that  strange  story?  Yon 
smooth  and  rounded  surface  of  rock,  polished,  re- 
mark, across  the  strata,  and  against  the  grain ;  and 
furrowed  here  and  there,  as  if  by  iron  talons,  with 
long  parallel  scratches.  It  was  the  crawling  of 
a  glacier  which  polished  that  rock-face ;  the  stones 
fallen  from  Snowdon  peak  into  the  half-liquid  lake 
of  ice  above,  which  ploughed  those  furrows.  ^Eons 
and  aeons  ago,  before  the  time  when  Adam  first 

"  Embraced  his  Eve  in  happy  hour, 
And  every  bird  in  Eden  burst 
In  carol,  every  bud  in  flower  " 

those  marks  were  there ;  the  records  of  the  '  Age 
of  ice';  slight,  truly,  to  be  effaced  by  the  next 
farmer  who  needs  to  build  a  wall ;  but  unmistake- 
able,  boundless  in  significance,  like  Crusoe's  one 
savage  footprint  on  the  sea-shore :  and  the  Natu- 
ralist acknowledges  the  finger-mark  of  God,  and 
wonders,  and  worships. 

Happy,  especially,  is  the  sportsman  who  is  also  a 
Naturalist :  for,  as  he  roves  in  pursuit  of  his  game 
over  hills  or  up  the  beds  of  streams  where  no  one 
but  a  sportsman  ever  thinks  of  going,  he  will  be 
certain  to  see  things  noteworthy,  which  the  mere 
naturalist  would  never  find,  simply  because  he  could 
never  guess  that  they  were  there  to  be  found.  I  do 
not  speak  merely  of  the  rare  birds  which  may  be 
shot,  the  curious  facts  as  to  the  habits  of  fish  which 
may  be  observed,  great  as  these  pleasures  are.  I 
speak  of  the  scenery,  the  weather,  the  geological 
formation  of  the  country,  its  vegetation,  and  the 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE      15 

living  habits  of  its  denizens.  A  sportsman  out  in 
all  weathers,  and  often  dependent  for  success  on 
his  knowledge  of  'what  the  sky  is  going  to  do', 
has  opportunities  for  becoming  a  meteorologist  which 
no  one  beside  but  a  sailor  possesses;  and  one  has 
often  longed  for  a  scientific  gamekeeper  or  hunts- 
man, who,  by  discovering  a  law  for  the  mysterious 
and  seemingly  capricious  phenomena  of  'scent', 
might  perhaps  throw  light  on  a  hundred  dark 
passages  of  hygrometry1.  The  fisherman,  too, — 
what  an  inexhaustible  treasury  of  wonders  lies  at 
his  feet,  in  the  subaqueous  world  of  the  commonest 
mountain  burn  !  All  the  laws  which  mould  a  world 
are  there  busy,  if  he  but  knew  it,  fattening  his 
trout  for  him,  and  making  them  rise  to  the  fly,  by 
strange  electric  influences,  at  one  hour  rather  than 
at  another.  Many  a  good  geognostic2  lesson  too, 
both  as  to  the  nature  of  a  country's  rocks,  and  as 
to  the  laws  by  which  strata  are  deposited,  may  an 
observing  man  learn  as  he  wades  up  the  bed  of 
a  trout-stream — not  to  mention  the  strange  forms 
and  habits  of  the  tribes  of  water-insects.  More- 
over, no  good  fisherman  but  knows,  to  his  sorrow, 
that  there  are  plenty  of  minutes,  ay  hours,  in  each 
day's  fishing,  in  which  he  would  be  right  glad  of 
any  employment  better  than  trying  to 

"  Call  spirits  from  the  vasty  deep  ", 
who  will  not 

"  Come  when  you  do  call  for  them  ". 

1  [Hygrometry :  the  art  of  measuring  the  atmospheric  moisture.] 
-  [Geognostic  :  pertaining  to  the  science  of  the  constitution  and 
structure  of  the  earth.] 


16  GLAUCUS 

What  to  do  then  ?  You  are  sitting,  perhaps,  in 
your  coracle,  upon  some  mountain  tarn,  waiting  for 
a  wind,  and  waiting  in  vain. 

"  Kerne  Luft  an  keine  Seite, 
Todes-stille  f  iirchterlich  " ; J 

as  Goethe  has  it — 

"  Und  der  Schiffer  sieht  bekiimmert 
Glatte  Flache  rings  umher".2 

You  paddle  to  the  shore  on  the  side  whence  the 
wind  ought  to  come,  if  it  had  any  spirit  in  it,  tie 
the  coracle  to  a  stone,  light  your  cigar,  lie  down  on 
your  back  upon  the  grass,  grumble,  and  finally  fall 
asleep.  In  the  meanwhile,  probably,  the  breeze 
has  come  on,  and  there  has  been  half-an-hour's 
lively  fishing  curl ;  and  you  wake  just  in  time  to  see 
the  last  ripple  of  it  sneaking  off  at  the  other  side 
of  the  lake,  leaving  all  as  dead-calm  as  before. 

Now  how  much  better,  instead  of  falling  asleep, 
to  have  walked  quietly  round  the  lake-side,  and 
asked  of  your  own  brains  and  of  nature  the  ques- 
tion '  How  did  this  lake  come  here  ?  What  does  it 
mean  ? ' 

It  is  a  hole  in  the  earth.  True,  but  how  was  the 
hole  made  ?  There  must  have  been  huge  forces  at 
work  to  form  such  a  chasm.  Probably  the  moun- 
tain was  actually  opened  from  within  by  an  earth- 
quake ;  and,  when  the  strata  fell  together  again,  the 
portion  at  either  end  of  the  chasm,  being  perhaps 

1  [Not  a  breath  of  wind  on  any  side, 

The  terrible  stillness  of  death.] 

2  [And  the  anxious  seaman  sees  around  him 

Level  flatness  everywhere.  ] 


THE  WONDEKS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE      17 

crushed  together  with  greater  force,  remained  higher 
than  the  centre,  and  so  the  water  lodged  between 
them.  Perhaps  it  was  formed  thus.  You  will  at 
least  agree  that  its  formation  must  have  been  a 
grand  sight  enough,  and  one  during  which  a  spec- 
tator would  have  had  some  difficulty  in  keeping  his 
footing. 

And  when  you  learn  that  this  convulsion  probably 
took  place  at  the  bottom  of  an  ocean,  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  years  ago,  you  have  at  least  a  few 
thoughts  over  which  to  ruminate,  which  will  make 
you  at  once  too  busy  to  grumble  and  ashamed  to 
grumble. 

Yet,  after  all,  I  hardly  think  the  lake  was  formed 
in  this  way,  and  suspect  that  it  may  have  been  dry 
for  ages  after  it  emerged  from  the  primeval  waves 
and  Snowdonia  was  a  palm-fringed  island  in  a 
tropic  sea.  Let  us  look  the  place  over  more  care- 
fully. 

You  see  the  lake  is  nearly  circular;  on  the  side 
where  we  stand  the  pebbly  beach  is  not  six  feet 
above  the  water,  and  slopes  away  steeply  into  the 
valley  behind  us,  while  before  us  it  shelves  gradu- 
ally into  the  lake;  forty  yards  out,  as  you  know, 
there  is  not  ten-feet  water ;  and  then  a  steep  bank, 
the  edge  whereof  we  and  the  big  trout  know  well, 
sinks  suddenly  to  unknown  depths.  On  the  oppo- 
site side  that  vast  flat-topped  wall  of  rock  towers 
up  shoreless  into  the  sky,  seven  hundred  feet  per- 
pendicular ;  the  deepest  water  of  all  we  know  is  at 
its  very  foot.  Eight  and  left,  two  shoulders  of 
down  slope  into  the  lake.  Now  turn  round  and 


18  GLAUCUS 

look  down  the  gorge.  Kemark  that  this  pebble 
bank  on  which  we  stand  reaches  some  fifty  yards 
downward:  you  see  the  loose  stones  peeping  out 
everywhere.  We  may  fairly  suppose  that  we  stand 
on  a  dam  of  loose  stones,  a  hundred  feet  deep. 

But  why  loose  stones  ? — and  if  so,  what  matter ; 
and  what  wonder?  There  are  rocks  cropping  out 
everywhere  down  the  hill-side. 

Because  if  you  will  take  up  one  of  these  stones 
and  crack  it  across,  you  will  see  that  it  is  not  of 
the  same  stuff  as  those  said  rocks.  Step  into  the 
next  field  and  see.  That  rock  is  the  common 
Snowdon  slate,  which  we  see  everywhere.  The  two 
shoulders  of  down,  right  and  left,  are  slate  too; 
you  can  see  that  at  a  glance.  But  the  stones  of 
the  pebble  bank  are  a  close-grained,  yellow-spotted 
rock.  They  are  Syenite ;  and  (you  may  believe  me 
or  not,  as  you  will)  they  were  once  upon  a  time  in 
the  condition  of  hasty -pudding  heated  to  some  800 
degrees  of  Fahrenheit,  and  in  that  condition  shoved 
their  way  up  somewhere  or  other  through  these 
slates.  But  where;  whence  on  earth  did  these 
Syenite  pebbles  come  ?  Let  us  walk  round  to  the 
cliff  on  the  opposite  side  and  see.  It  is  worth 
while ;  for,  even  if  my  guess  be  wrong,  there  is 
good  spinning  with  a  brass  minnow  round  the  angles 
of  the  rocks. 

Now  see.  Between  the  cliff-foot  and  the  sloping 
down  is  a  crack,  ending  in  a  gully ;  the  nearer  side 
is  of  slate,  and  the  further  side,  the  cliff  itself,  is — 
why,  the  whole  cliff  is  composed  of  the  very  same 
stone  as  the  pebble-ridge  ! 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE      19 

Now,  my  good  friend,  how  did  those  pebbles  get 
three  hundred  yards  across  the  lake  ?  Hundreds 
of  tons,  some  of  them  three  feet  long :  who  carried 
them  across  ?  The  old  Cymry  were  not  likely  to 
amuse  themselves  by  making  such  a  breakwater  up 
here  in  '  No-man's-land ',  two  thousand  feet  above 
the  sea;  but  somebody,  or  something,  must  have 
carried  them,  for  stones  do  not  fly,  nor  swim  either. 

Shot  out  of  a  volcano  ?  As  you  seem  determined 
to  have  a  prodigy,  it  may  as  well  be  a  sufficiently 
huge  one. 

Well — these  stones  lie  altogether ;  and  a  volcano 
would  have  hardly  made  so  compact  a  shot,  not 
being  in  the  habit  of  using  Eley's  wire  cartridges. 
Our  next  hope  of  a  solution  lies  in  John  Jones, 
who  carried  up  the  coracle.  Hail  him,  and  ask 
him  what  is  on  the  top  of  that  cliff  ...  So  ? 
'  Plainshe  and  pogshe,  and  another  Llyn '.  Very 
good.  Now,  does  it  not  strike  you  that  this  whole 
cliff  has  a  remarkably  smooth  and  plastered  look, 
like  a  hare's  run  up  an  earthbank  ?  And  do  you 
not  see  that  it  is  polished  thus  only  over  the  lake, 
that,  as  soon  as  the  cliff  abuts  on  the  downs  right 
and  left,  it  forms  pinnacles,  caves,  broken  angular 
boulders  ?  Syenite  usually  does  so  in  our  damp 
climate,  from  the  'weathering'  effect  of  frost  and 
rain :  why  has  it  not  done  so  over  the  lake  ?  On 
that  part  something  (giants  perhaps)  has  been 
scrambling  up  or  down  on  a  very  large  scale,  and 
so  rubbed  off  every  corner  which  was  inclined  to 
come  away,  till  the  solid  core  of  the  rock  was  bared. 
And  may  not  those  mysterious  giants  have  had  a 


20  GLAUCUS 

hand  in  carrying  the  stones  across  the  lake?  .  .  . 
Eeally  I  am  not  altogether  jesting.  Think  awhile 
what  agent  could  possibly  have  produced  either 
one,  or  both  of  these  effects? 

There  is  but  one;  and  that,  if  you  have  been 
an  Alpine  traveller— much  more  if  you  have  been 
a  Chamois  hunter — you  have  seen  many  a  time 
(whether  you  knew  it  or  not)  at  the  very  same 
work. 

Ice  ?  Yes ;  ice ;  Hrymir  the  frost-giant,  and  no 
one  else.  And  if  you  will  look  at  the  facts,  you 
will  see  how  ice  may  have  done  it.  Our  friend 
John  Jones's  report  of  plains  and  bogs  and  a  lake 
above  makes  it  quite  possible  that  in  the  'Ice  Age' 
(Glacial  Epoch,  as  the  big-word-mongers  call  it) 
there  was  above  that  cliff  a  great  ncv6,  or  snowfield, 
such  as  you  have  seen  often  in  the  Alps  at  the 
head  of  each  glacier.  Over  the  face  of  this  cliff  a 
glacier  has  crawled  down  from  that  nevt,  polishing 
the  face  of  the  rock  in  its  descent :  but  the  snow, 
having  no  large  and  deep  outlet,  has  not  slid  down 
in  a  sufficient  stream  to  reach  the  vale  below,  and 
form  a  glacier  of  the  first  order ;  and  has  therefore 
stopped  short  on  the  other  side  of  the  lake,  as  a 
glacier  of  the  second  order,  which  ends  in  an  ice 
cliff  hanging  high  upon  the  mountain-side,  and  kept 
from  further  progress  by  daily  melting.  If  you 
have  ever  gone  up  the  Mer  de  Glace  to  the  Tacul, 
you  have  seen  a  magnificent  specimen  of  this  sort 
on  your  right  hand,  just  opposite  the  Tacul,  in  the 
Glacier  de  Trelaporte,  which  comes  down  from  the 
Aiguille  de  Charmoz. 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE      21 

This  explains  our  pebble-ridge.  The  stones  which 
the  glacier  rubbed  off  the  cliff  beneath  it,  it  carried 
forward,  slowly  but  surely,  till  they  saw  the  light 
again  in  the  face  of  the  ice-cliff,  and  dropped  out  of 
it  under  the  melting  of  the  summer  sun,  to  form 
a  huge  dam  across  the  ravine ;  till,  the  '  Ice  Age ' 
past,  a  more  genial  climate  succeeded,  and  nev6  and 
glacier  melted  away;  but  the  'moraine'  of  stones 
did  not,  and  remains,  to  this  day,  the  dam  which 
keeps  up  the  waters  of  the  lake. 

There  is  my  explanation.  If  you  can  find  a 
better,  do :  but  remember  always  that  it  must  in- 
clude an  answer  to  '  How  did  the  stones  get  across 
the  lake  ? ' 

Now,  reader,  we  have  had  no  abstruse  science 
here,  no  long  words,  not  even  a  microscope  or  a 
book :  and  yet  we,  as  two  plain  sportsmen,  have 
gone  back,  or  been  led  back  by  fact  and  common 
sense,  into  the  most  awful  and  sublime  depths,  in- 
to an  epos  of  the  destruction  and  re-creation  of  a 
former  world. 

This  is  but  a  single  instance ;  I  might  give 
hundreds.  This  one,  nevertheless,  may  have  some 
effect  in  awakening  you  to  the  boundless  world  of 
wonders  which  is  all  around  you,  and  make  you 
ask  yourself  seriously  'What  branch  of  Natural 
History  shall  I  begin  to  investigate,  if  it  be  but 
for  a  few  weeks,  this  summer  ? ' 

To  which  I  answer  'Try  the  Wonders  of  the 
Shore '.  There  are  along  every  sea-beach  more 
strange  things  to  be  seen,  and  those  to  be  seen 
easily,  than  in  any  other  field  of  observation  which 


22  GLAUCUS 

you  will  find  in  these  islands.  And  on  the  shore 
only  will  you  have  the  enjoyment  of  finding  new 
species,  of  adding  your  mite  to  the  treasures  of 
science. 

For  not  only  the  English  ferns,  but  the  natural 
history  of  all  our  land  species,  are  now  well-nigh 
exhausted.  Our  home  botanists  and  ornithologists 
are  spending  their  time  now,  perforce,  in  verifying 
a  few  obscure  species,  and  bemoaning  themselves, 
like  Alexander,  that  there  are  no  more  worlds  left 
to  conquer.  For  the  geologist,  indeed,  and  the  en- 
tomologist, especially  in  the  remoter  districts,  much 
remains  to  be  done,  but  only  at  a  heavy  outlay  of 
time,  labour,  and  study ;  and  the  dilettante  (and  it 
is  for  dilettanti,  like  myself,  that  I  principally  write) 
must  be  content  to  tread  in  the  tracks  of  greater 
men  who  have  preceded  him,  and  accept  at  second 
and  third  hand  their  foregone  conclusions. 

But  this  is  most  unsatisfactory ;  for  in  giving  up 
discovery,  one  gives  up  one  of  the  highest  enjoy- 
ments of  natural  history.  There  is  a  mysterious 
delight  in  the  discovery  of  a  new  species,  akin  to 
that  of  seeing  for  the  first  time,  in  their  native 
haunts,  plants  or  animals  of  which  one  has  till 
then  only  read.  Some,  surely,  who  read  these  pages 
have  experienced  that  latter  delight;  and,  though 
they  might  find  it  hard  to  define  whence  the  plea- 
sure arose,  know  well  that  it  was  a  solid  pleasure, 
the  memory  of  which  they  would  not  give  up  for 
hard  cash.  Some,  surely,  can  recollect,  at  their  first 
sight  of  the  Alpine  Soldanella,  the  Ehododendron, 
or  the  black  Orchis,  growing  upon  the  edge  of  the 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE      23 

eternal  snow,  a  thrill  of  emotion  not  unmixed  with 
awe;  a  sense  that  they  were,  as  it  were,  brought 
face  to  face  with  the  creatures  of  another  world ; 
that  Nature  was  independent  of  them,  not  merely 
they  of  her ;  that  trees  were  not  merely  made  to 
build  their  houses,  or  herbs  to  feed  their  cattle,  as 
they  looked  on  those  wild  gardens  amid  the  wreaths 
of  the  untrodden  snow,  which  had  lifted  their  gay 
flowers  to  the  sun  year  after  year  since  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world,  taking  no  heed  of  man,  and  all 
the  coil  which  he  keeps  in  the  valleys  far  below. 

And  even,  to  take  a  simpler  instance,  there  are 
those  who  will  excuse,  or  even  approve  of,  a  writer 
for  saying  that,  among  the  memories  of  a  month's 
eventful  tour,  those  which  stand  out  as  beacon- 
points,  those  round  which  all  the  others  group 
themselves,  are  the  first  wolf-track  by  the  roadside 
in  the  Kyllwald ;  the  first  sight  of  the  blue  and 
green  Roller-birds,  walking  behind  the  plough  like 
rooks  in  the  tobacco-fields  of  Wittlich ;  the  first 
ball  of  Olivine  scraped  out  of  the  volcanic  slag- 
heaps  of  the  Dreisser-Weiher ;  the  first  pair  of 
the  Lesser  Bustard  flushed  upon  the  downs  of  the 
Mosel-kopf;  the  first  sight  of  the  cloud  of  white 
Ephemerae,  fluttering  in  the  dusk  like  a  summer 
snowstorm  between  us  and  the  black  cliffs  of  the 
Rheinstein,  while  the  broad  Rhine  beneath  flashed 
blood-red  in  the  blaze  of  the  lightning  and  the  fires 
of  the  Mausenthurm — a  lurid  Acheron  above  which 
seemed  to  hover  ten  thousand  unburied  ghosts ;  and 
last,  but  not  least,  on  the  lip  of  the  vast  Mosel-kopf 
crater — just  above  the  point  where  the  weight  of 


24  GLAUCUS 

the  fiery  lake  has  burst  the  side  of  the  great  slag- 
cup,  and  rushed  forth  between  two  cliffs  of  clink- 
stone across  the  downs,  in  a  clanging  stream  of  fire, 
damming  up  rivulets,  and  blasting  its  path  through 
forests,  far  away  toward  the  valley  of  the  Moselle — 
the  sight  of  an  object  for  which  was  forgotten  for 
the  moment  that  battlefield  of  the  Titans  at  our 
feet,  and  the  glorious  panorama,  Hundsriick  and 
Taunus,  Siebengebirge  and  Ardennes,  and  all  the 
crater  peaks  around ;  and  which  was — smile  not, 
reader — our  first  yellow  foxglove. 

But  what  is  even  this  to  the  delight  of  finding 
a  new  species  ? — of  rescuing  (as  it  seems  to  you)  one 
more  thought  of  the  divine  mind  from  Hela,  and 
the  realms  of  the  unknown,  unclassified,  uncompre- 
hended  ?  As  it  seems  to  you :  though  in  reality  it 
only  seems  so,  in  a  world  wherein  not  a  sparrow 
falls  to  the  ground  unnoticed  by  our  Father  who  is 
in  heaven. 

The  truth  is,  the  pleasure  of  finding  new  species 
is  too  great ;  it  is  morally  dangerous ;  for  it  brings 
with  it  the  temptation  to  look  on  the  thing  found 
as  your  own  possession,  all  but  your  own  creation ; 
to  pride  yourself  on  it,  as  if  God  had  not  known  it 
for  ages  since;  even  to  squabble  jealously  for  the 
right  of  having  it  named  after  you,  and  of  being 
recorded  in  the  Transactions  of  I-know-not-what 
Society  as  its  first  discoverer :— as  if  all  the  angels 
in  heaven  had  not  been  admiring  it,  long  before  you 
were  born  or  thought  of. 

But  to  be  forewarned  is  to  be  forearmed ;  and  I 
seriously  counsel  you  to  try  if  you  cannot  find 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE     25 

something  new  this  summer  along  the  coast  to 
which  you  are  going.  There  is  no  reason  why  you 
should  not  be  so  successful  as  a  friend  of  mine  who, 
with  a  very  slight  smattering  of  science,  and  very 
desultory  research,  obtained  last  winter  from  the 
Torbay  shores  three  entirely  new  species,  beside 
several  rare  animals  which  had  escaped  all  natu- 
ralists since  the  lynx-eye  of  Colonel  Montagu 
discerned  them  forty  years  ago. 

And  do  not  despise  the  creatures  because  they 
are  minute.  No  doubt  we  should  both  of  us  prefer 
helping  Eajah  Brooke1  to  discover  monstrous  apes 
in  the  tropical  forests  of  Borneo,  or  stumbling  with 
Hooker2  upon  herds  of  gigantic  Ammon  sheep  amid 
the  rhododendron  thickets  of  the  Himalaya :  but 
it  cannot  be ;  and  "  he  is  a  fool ",  says  old  Hesiod, 
"  who  knows  not  how  much  better  half  is  than  the 
whole."  Let  us  be  content  with  what  is  within  our 
reach.  And  doubt  not  that  in  these  tiny  creatures 
are  mysteries  more  than  we  shall  ever  fathom. 

The  zoophytes  and  microscopic  animalcules,  which 
people  every  shore  and  every  drop  of  water,  have 
been  now  raised  to  a  rank  in  the  human  mind  more 
important,  perhaps,  than  even  those  gigantic  mon- 
sters whose  models  fill  the  lake  at  the  New  Crystal 
Palace.  The  research  which  has  been  bestowed, 
for  the  last  century,  upon  these  once  unnoticed 
atomies,  has  well  repaid  itself ;  for  from  no  branch 

1  [Sir  James  Brooke,  Rajah  of  Sarawak,  born  at  Benares  in  1803, 
died  1868.] 

2  [Sir  James  Dalton  Hooker,  son  of  Sir  W.  J.  Hooker,  who  did 
so  much  for  Kew  Gardens  during  his  directorship  there,  was  born 
in  1816.     His  "Himalayan  Journals"  was  published  in  1854.] 


26  GLAUCUS 

of  physical  science  has  more  been  learnt  of  the 
scientia  scientiarum,  the  priceless  art  of  learning; 
no  branch  of  science  has  more  utterly  confounded 
the  wisdom  of  the  wise,  shattered  to  pieces  systems 
and  theories,  and  the  idolatry  of  arbitary  names, 
and  taught  man  to  be  silent  while  his  Maker 
speaks,  than  this  apparent  pedantry  of  zoophy- 
tology1,  in  which  our  old  distinctions  of  'animal', 
'  vegetable ',  and  '  mineral '  are  trembling  in  the 
balance,  seemingly  ready  to  vanish  like  their  fellows 
— '  the  four  elements  '  of  fire,  earth,  air,  and  water. 
No  branch  of  science  has  helped  so  much  to  sweep 
away  that  sensuous  idolatry  of  mere  size,  which 
tempts  man  to  admire  and  respect  objects  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  feet  or  inches  which  they 
occupy  in  space.  No  branch  of  science,  moreover, 
has  been  more  humbling  to  the  boasted  rapidity 
and  omnipotence  of  the  human  reason,  or  has  more 
taught  those  who  have  eyes  to  see,  and  hearts  to 
understand,  how  weak  and  wayward,  staggering  and 
slow,  are  the  steps  of  our  fallen  race  (rapid  and 
triumphant  enough  in  that  broad  road  of  theories 
which  leads  to  intellectual  destruction)  whensoever 
they  tread  the  narrow  path  of  true  science,  which 
leads  (if  I  may  be  allowed  to  transfer  our  Lord's 
great  parable  from  moral  to  intellectual  matters)  to 
Life;  to  the  living  and  permanent  knowledge  of 
living  things,  and  of  the  laws  of  their  existence. 
Humbling,  truly,  to  one  who,  in  this  summer  of 
1854,  the  centenary  year  of  British  zoophytology, 
looks  back  to  the  summer  of  1754,  when  good 
1  [Zoophytology  :  the  natural  history  of  zoophytes.] 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE      27 

Mr.  Ellis1,  the  wise  and  benevolent  West  Indian 
merchant,  read  before  the  Royal  Society  his  paper 
proving  the  animal  nature  of  corals,  and  followed 
it  up  the  year  after  by  that  "  Essay  towards  the 
Natural  History  of  the  Corallines,  and  other  like 
marine  productions  of  the  British  Coasts ",  which 
forms  the  groundwork  of  all  our  knowledge  on 
the  subject  to  this  day.  The  chapter  in  Dr.  G. 
Johnston's  "  British  Zoophytes "  (p.  40*7),  or  the 
excellent  little  rtsumt  thereof  in  Dr.  Landsborough's 
book  on  the  same  subject,  is  really  a  saddening  one, 
as  one  sees  how  loth  were  not  merely  dreamers  like 
Marsigli2  or  Bonnet3,  but  sound-headed  men  like 
Pallas4  and  Linne5,  to  give  up  the  old  sense-bound 
fancy  that  these  corals  were  vegetables,  and  their 
polypes  some  sort  of  living  flowers.  Yet,  after  all, 
there  are  excuses  for  them.  Without  our  improved 
microscopes,  and  while  the  sciences  of  comparative 
anatomy  and  chemistry  were  yet  infantile,  it  was 
difficult  to  believe  what  was  the  truth  ;  and  for  this 
simple  reason :  that,  as  usual,  the  truth,  when  dis- 
covered, turned  out  far  more  startling  and  prodigious 
than  the  dreams  which  men  had  hastily  substituted 
for  it ;  more  strange  than  Ovid's  old  story  that  the 

1  [John  Ellis,  born  about  1710 ;  appointed  agent  for  West  Florida 
in  1764,  and  for  Dominica  in  1770.     He  published  his  "Essay"  in 
1755,  and  in  1770,  "Directions  for  bringing  over  Seeds  and  Plants 
from  the  East  Indies",  describing  in  it  Dionoea  muscipula.] 

2  [Luigi  Ferdinando,  Conte  de  Marsigli,  an  Italian  geographer 
and  physicist,  born  at  Bologna  in  1658  ;  died  1730.] 

3  [Jean    Bonnet,    a    French    naturalist,    born    at    Clermont 
(Auvergne)  in  1643  ;  died  1692.] 

4  [Peter  Simon  Pallas,  a  German  naturalist  and  traveller,  born 
at  Berlin  in  1741  ;  died  1811.] 

6  [Linne,  more  frequently  called  by  his  Latinised  name  Lin- 
naeus, a  Swedish  botanist  of  the  first  rank,  founded  the  '  Sexual 
System  of  Plants.'  He  was  born  at  Riishult  in  1707,  and  died  at 
Upsala  in  1778.  He  has  been  called  '  The  Pliny  of  the  North '.] 


28  GLAUCUS 

coral  was  soft  under  the  sea,  and  hardened  by  ex- 
posure to  air;  than  Marsigli's  notion,  that  the 
coral-polypes  were  its  flowers;  than  Dr.  Parsons' 
contemptuous  denial,  that  these  complicated  forms 
could  be  "the  operations  of  little,  poor,  helpless, 
jelly-like  animals,  and  not  the  work  of  more  sure 
vegetation  " ;  than  Baker  the  microscopist's  detailed 
theory  of  their  being  produced  by  the  crystallisa- 
tion of  the  mineral  salts  in  the  sea-water,  just  as  he 
had  seen  "the  particles  of  mercury  and  copper  in 
aquafortis  assume  tree-like  forms,  or  curious  de- 
lineations of  mosses  and  minute  shrubs  on  slates 
and  stones,  owing  to  the  shooting  of  salts  inter- 
mixed with  mineral  particles" — one  smiles  at  it 
now ;  yet  these  men  were  no  less  sensible  than  we 
of  the  year  1854 ;  and  if  we  know  better,  it  is  only 
because  other  men,  and  those  few  and  far  between, 
have  laboured  amid  disbelief,  ridicule  and  error; 
needing  again  and  again  to  retrace  their  steps,  and 
to  unlearn  more  than  they  learnt,  seeming  to  go 
backwards  when  they  were  really  progressing  most: 
and  now  we  have  entered  into  their  labours,  and 
find  them,  as  I  have  just  said,  more  wondrous  than 
all  the  poetic  dreams  of  a  Bonnet  or  a  Darwin. 
For  who,  after  all,  to  take  a  few  broad  instances 
(not  to  enlarge  on  the  great  root-wonder  of  a 
number  of  distinct  individuals  connected  by  a  com- 
mon life,  and  forming  a  seeming  plant  invariable  in 
each  species)  would  have  dreamed  of  the  bizarreries 
which  these  very  zoophytes  present  in  their  classifi- 
cation ?  You  go  down  to  any  shore  after  a  gale  of 
wind,  and  pick  up  a  few  delicate  little  sea-ferns. 
You  have  two  in  your  hand,  which  probably  look  to 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     29 


you,  even  under  a  good  pocket  magnifier,  identical 

or  nearly  so.  (Ser- 

tularia  operculata 

and  Gemellaria 

loriculata ;  or  any 

of  the  small  Ser- 

tularise,  compared 

with    Crisiss    and 

Cellularise,  are 

very  good  exam-  Sertolarut  rosaoea. 

pies.)  But  you  are  told,  to  your 
surprise,  that  however  like  the 
dead  horny  polypidoms  which  you 
hold  may  be,  the  two  species  of 
animal  which  have  formed  them 
are  at  least  as  far  apart  in  the 
scale  of  creation  as  a  quadruped 
is  from  a  fish.  You  see  in  some 
Musselburgh  dredger's  boat  the 
phosphorescent  sea-pen  (unknown 
in  England),  a  living  feather,  of 
the  look  and  consistency  of  a  cock's 
comb;  or  the  still  stranger  sea- 
rush  (Virgularia  mirabilis),  a  spine 
a  foot  long,  with  hundreds  of  rosy 
flowerets  arranged  in  half -rings 
round  it  from  end  to  end ;  and  you 
are  told  that  these  are  the  con- 
geners of  the  great  stony  '  Venus's 
fan'  which  hangs  in  seamen's  cot- 

tages,  brought  home  from  the  West 
Virgularia  mira-        ^^       ^   ^   yQU 


30 


GLAUCUS 


wondering,  you  hear  that  all  three  are  congeners  of 
the  ugly,  shapeless,  white  '  dead  man's  hand ',  which 
you  may  pick  up  after  a  storm  on  any  shore.  You 

have  a  beauti- 
ful madrepore 
or  brain -stone 
on  your  mantel- 
piece, brought 
home  from 
some  Pacific 
coral-reef.  You 
are  to  believe 
that  it  has  no 
more  to  do  with 
the  beautiful 
tubular  corals 
among  which  it 
was  growing, 
than  a  bird  has 
with  a  worm ; 
and  that  its 
first  cousins  are 
the  soft,  slimy 
Alcyonium  digitatum  (Dead  Man's  Hand).  gea  -  anemones 

which  you  see  expanding  their  living  flowers  in 
every  rock-pool — bags  of  sea-water,  without  a  trace 
of  bone  or  stone.  You  must  believe  it;  for  in 
science,  as  in  higher  matters,  he  who  will  walk 
surely,  must  "  walk  by  faith  and  not  by  sight ". 

These  are  but  few  of  the  wonders  which  the 
classification  of  marine  animals  affords ;  and  only 
drawn  from  one  class  of  them,  though  almost  as 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     31 

common  among   every  other  family  of   that   sub- 
marine world  whereof  Spenser  sang 

"  Oh,  what  an  endless  work  have  I  in  hand, 

To  count  the  sea's  abundant  progeny  ! 
Whose  fruitful  seed  far  passeth  those  in  land, 

And  also  those  which  won  in  th'  azure  sky. 

For  much  more  earth  to  tell  the  stars  on  high, 
Albe  they  endless  seem  in  estimation, 

Than  to  recount  the  sea's  posterity  ; 
So  fertile  be  the  flouds  in  generation, 
So  huge  their  numbers,  and  so  numberless  their  nation". 

But  these  few  examples  will  be  sufficient  to 
account  both  for  the  slow  pace  at  which  the  know- 
ledge of  sea-animals  has  progressed,  and  for  the 
allurement  which  men  of  the  highest  attainments 
have  found,  and  still  find  in  it.  And  when  to  this 
we  add  the  marvels  which  meet  us  at  every  step  in 
the  anatomy  and  the  reproduction  of  these  creatures, 
and  in  the  chemical  and  mechanical  functions  which 
they  fulfil  in  the  great  economy  of  our  planet,  we 
cannot  wonder  at  finding  that  books  which  treat  of 
them  carry  with  them  a  certain  charm  of  romance, 
and  feed  the  play  of  fancy,  and  that  love  of  the 
marvellous  which  is  inherent  in  man,  at  the  same 
time  that  they  lead  the  reader  to  more  solemn  and 
lofty  trains  of  thought,  which  can  find  their  full 
satisfaction  only  in  self -forgetful  worship,  and  that 
hymn  of  praise  which  goes  up  ever  from  land  and 
sea,  as  well  as  from  saints  and  martyrs  and  the 
heavenly  host,  "  0  all  ye  works  of  the  Lord,  and 
ye,  too,  spirits  and  souls  of  the  righteous,  praise 
Him,  and  magnify  Him  for  ever ! " 


32  GLAUCUS 

I  have  said  that  there  were  excuses  for  the  old 
contempt  of  the  study  of  Natural  History.  I  have 
said,  too,  it  may  be  hoped,  enough  to  show  that 
contempt  to  be  now  ill-founded.  But  still,  there 
are  those  who  regard  it  as  a  mere  amusement,  and 
that  as  a  somewhat  effeminate  one ;  and  think  that 
it  can  at  best  help  to  while  away  a  leisure  hour 
harmlessly,  and  perhaps  usefully,  as  a  substitute  for 
coarser  sports,  or  for  the  reading  of  novels.  Those, 
however,  who  have  followed  it  out,  especially  on  the 
sea-shore,  know  better.  They  can  tell  from  experi- 
ence, that  over  and  above  its  accessory  charms  of 
pure  sea-breezes,  and  wild  rambles  by  cliff  and  loch, 
the  study  itself  has  had  a  weighty  moral  effect  upon 
their  hearts  and  spirits.  There  are  those  who  can 
well  understand  how  the  good  and  wise  John  Ellis, 
amid  all  his  philanthropic  labours  for  the  good  of 
the  West  Indies,  while  he  was  spending  his  intellect 
and  fortune  in  introducing  into  our  tropic  settle- 
ments the  bread-fruit,  the  mangosteen,  and  every 
plant  and  seed  which  he  hoped  might  be  useful  for 
medicine,  agriculture,  and  commerce,  could  yet  feel 
himself  justified  in  devoting  large  portions  of  his 
ever  well-spent  time  to  the  fighting  the  battle  of 
the  corallines  against  Parsons  and  the  rest,  and 
even  in  measuring  pens  with  Linne,  the  prince  of 
naturalists.  There  are  those  who  can  sympathise 
with  the  gallant  old  Scottish  officer  mentioned  by 
some  writer  on  sea-weeds,  who,  desperately  wounded 
in  the  breach  at  Badajos,  and  a  sharer  in  all  the 
toils  and  triumphs  of  the  Peninsular  War,  could  in 
his  old  age  show  a  rare  sea-weed  with  as  much 


THE  WONDEKS   OF  THE   SEA-SHOKE     33 

triumph  as  his  well-earned  medals,  and  talk  over  a 
tiny  spore-capsule  with  as  much  zest  as  the  records 
of  sieges  and  battles.  Why  not  ?  That  temper 
which  made  him  a  good  soldier  may  very  well  have 
made  him  a  good  naturalist  also.  The  greatest 
living  English  geologist,  Sir  Eoderick  Murchison,  is 
also  an  old  Peninsular  officer.  I  doubt  that  with 
him,  too,  the  experiences  of  war  may  have  helped 
to  fit  him  for  the  studies  of  peace.  Certainly,  the 
best  naturalist,  as  far  as  logical  acumen,  as  well 
as  earnest  research,  is  concerned,  whom  England 
has  ever  seen,  was  the  Devonshire  squire,  Colonel 
George  Montagu,  of  whom  Mr.  E.  Forbes  well  says 
that,  "had  he  been  educated  a  physiologist"  (and 
not,  as  he  was,  a  soldier  and  a  sportsman),  "and 
made  the  study  of  nature  his  aim  and  not  his 
amusement,  his  would  have  been  one  of  the  greatest 
names  in  the  whole  range  of  British  science".  I 
question,  nevertheless,  whether  he  would  not  have 
lost  more  than  he  would  have  gained  by  a  different 
training.  It  might  have  made  him  a  more  learned 
systematiser ;  but  would  it  have  quickened  in  him 
that '  seeing  eye '  of  the  true  soldier  and  sportsman, 
which  makes  Montagu's  descriptions  indelible  word- 
pictures,  instinct  with  life  and  truth?  "There  is 
no  question ",  says  Mr.  E.  Forbes,  after  bewailing 
the  vagueness  of  most  naturalists,  "  about  the  iden- 
tity of  any  animal  Montagu  described.  .  .  .  He 
was  a  forward-looking  philosopher ;  he  spoke  of 
every  creature  as  if  one  exceeding  like  it,  yet  dif- 
ferent from  it,  would  be  washed  up  by  the  waves 
next  tide.  Consequently  his  descriptions  are  per- 


34  GLAUCUS 

manent ".  Scientific  men  will  recognise  in  this  the 
highest  praise  which  can  be  bestowed,  because  it 
attributes  to  him  that  highest  faculty,  the  Art  of 
Seeing :  but  the  study  and  the  book  would  not  have 
given  that.  It  is  God's  gift,  wheresoever  educated : 
but  its  true  school-room  is  the  camp  and  the  ocean, 
the  prairie  and  the  forest;  active,  self -helping  life, 
which  can  grapple  with  Nature  herself :  not  merely 
with  printed  books  about  her.  Let  no  one  think 
that  this  same  Natural  History  is  a  pursuit  fitted 
only  for  effeminate  or  pedantic  men.  I  should  say 
rather,  that  the  qualifications  required  for  a  perfect 
naturalist  are  as  many  and  as  lofty  as  were  required, 
by  old  chivalrous  writers,  for  the  perfect  knight- 
errant  of  the  Middle  Ages ;  for  (to  sketch  an  ideal, 
of  which  I  am  happy  to  say  our  race  now  affords 
many  a  fair  realisation)  our  perfect  naturalist  should 
be  strong  in  body;  able  to  haul  a  dredge,  climb  a 
rock,  turn  a  boulder,  walk  all  day,  uncertain  where 
he  shall  eat  or  rest;  ready  to  face  sun  and  rain,  wind 
and  frost,  and  to  eat  or  drink  thankfully  anything, 
however  coarse  or  meagre ;  he  should  know  how  to 
swim  for  his  life,  to  pull  an  oar,  sail  a  boat,  and 
ride  the  first  horse  which  comes  to  hand;  and, 
finally,  he  should  be  a  thoroughly  good  shot,  and  a 
skilful  fisherman ;  and,  if  he  go  far  abroad,  be  able 
on  occasion  to  fight  for  his  life. 

For  his  moral  character,  he  must,  like  a  knight 
of  old,  be  first  of  all  gentle  and  courteous,  ready 
and  able  to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  poor,  the 
ignorant,  and  the  savage ;  not  only  because  foreign 
travel  will  be  often  otherwise  impossible,  but  because 


P.  H.  G.  Del. 

1,  2.     SAGARTIA  TROGLODYTES.  4.  5. 

3.     S.  VIDUATA.  6. 


Andre  <t  Sleigh,  Ltd. 
S.  PALLIDA. 
S.  PUR  A. 


7,  8.     ADAMSIA  PALLIATA. 


THE  WONDEKS   OF  THE  SEA-SHOKE     35 

he  knows  how  much  invaluable  local  information  can 
be  only  obtained  from  fishermen,  miners,  hunters, 
and  tillers  of  the  soil.  Next,  he  should  be  brave 
and  enterprising,  and  withal  patient  and  undaunted; 
not  merely  in  travel,  but  in  investigation ;  knowing 
(as  Lord  Bacon  might  have  put  it)  that  the  king- 
dom of  Nature,  like  the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  must 
be  taken  by  violence,  and  that  only  to  those  who 
knock  long  and  earnestly  does  the  great  mother 
open  the  doors  of  her  sanctuary.  He  must  be  of  a 
reverent  turn  of  mind  also ;  not  rashly  discrediting 
any  reports,  however  vague  and  fragmentary ;  giving 
man  credit  always  for  some  germ  of  truth,  and 
giving  nature  credit  for  an  inexhaustible  fertility 
and  variety,  which  will  keep  him  his  life  long 
always  reverent,  yet  never  superstitious ;  wondering 
at  the  commonest,  but  not  surprised  by  the  most 
strange;  free  from  the  idols  of  size  and  sensuous 
loveliness ;  able  to  see  grandeur  in  the  minutest 
objects,  beauty  in  the  most  ungainly;  estimating 
each  thing  not  carnally,  as  the  vulgar  do,  by  its  size 
or  its  pleasantness  to  the  senses,  but  spiritually, 
by  the  amount  of  Divine  thought  revealed  to  him 
therein ;  holding  every  phenomenon  worth  the  noting 
down ;  believing  that  every  pebble  holds  a  treasure, 
every  bud  a  revelation ;  making  it  a  point  of  con- 
science to  pass  over  nothing  through  laziness  or 
hastiness,  lest  the  vision  once  offered  and  despised 
should  be  withdrawn ;  and  looking  at  every  object 
as  if  he  were  never  to  behold  it  again. 

Moreover,  he  must  keep  himself   free  from  all 
those  perturbations  of  mind  which  not  only  weaken 


36  GLAUCUS 

energy,  but  darken  and  confuse  the  inductive 
faculty ;  from  haste  and  laziness,  from  melancholy, 
testiness,  pride,  and  all  the  passions  which  make 
men  see  only  what  they  wish  to  see.  Of  solemn 
and  scrupulous  reverence  for  truth ;  of  the  habit  of 
mind  which  regards  each  fact  and  discovery  not  as 
our  own  possession,  but  as  the  possession  of  its 
Creator,  independent  of  us,  our  tastes,  our  needs,  or 
our  vain-glory,  I  hardly  need  to  speak ;  for  it  is 
the  very  essence  of  a  naturalist's  faculty — the  very 
tenure  of  his  existence:  and  without  truthfulness, 
science  would  be  as  impossible  now  as  chivalry 
would  have  been  of  old. 

And  last,  but  not  least,  the  perfect  naturalist 
should  have  in  him  the  very  essence  of  true  chivalry, 
namely,  self-devotion;  the  desire  to  advance,  not 
himself  and  his  own  fame  or  wealth,  but  knowledge 
and  mankind.  He  should  have  this  great  virtue; 
and  in  spite  of  many  shortcomings  (for  what  man  is 
there  who  liveth  and  sinneth  not  ?),  naturalists  as  a 
class  have  it  to  a  degree  which  makes  them  stand 
out  most  honourably  in  the  midst  of  a  self-seeking 
and  mammonite  generation,  inclined  to  value  every- 
thing by  its  money  price,  its  private  utility.  The 
spirit  which  gives  freely,  because  it  knows  that  it 
has  received  freely ;  which  communicates  knowledge 
without  hope  of  reward,  without  jealousy  and 
mean  rivalry,  to  fellow-students  and  to  the  world ; 
which  is  content  to  delve  and  toil  comparatively 
unknown,  that  from  its  obscure  and  seemingly 
worthless  results  others  may  derive  pleasure,  and 
even  build  up  great  fortunes,  and  change  the  very 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     37 

face  of  cities  and  lands,  by  the  practical  use  of  some 
stray  talisman  which  the  poor  student  has  invented 
in  his  laboratory ; — this  is  the  spirit  which  is  abroad 
among  our  scientific  men,  to  a  greater  degree  than 
it  ever  has  been  among  any  body  of  men  for  many 
a  century  past ;  and  might  well  be  copied  by  those 
who  profess  deeper  purposes  and  a  more  exalted 
calling,  than  the  discovery  of  a  new  zoophyte,  or 
the  classification  of  a  moorland  crag. 

And  it  is  these  qualities,  however  imperfectly  they 
may  be  realised  in  any  individual  instance,  which 
make  our  scientific  men,  as  a  class,  the  wholesomest 
and  pleasantest  of  companions  abroad,  and  at  home 
the  most  blameless,  simple,  and  cheerful,  in  all 
domestic  relations ;  men  for  the  most  part  of  man- 
ful heads,  and  yet  of  childlike  hearts,  who  have 
turned  to  quiet  study,  in  these  late  piping  times  of 
peace,  an  intellectual  health  and  courage  which 
might  have  made  them,  in  more  fierce  and  troublous 
times,  capable  of  doing  good  service  with  very 
different  instruments  than  the  scalpel  and  the 
microscope. 

I  have  been  sketching  an  ideal:  but  one  which 
I  seriously  recommend  to  the  consideration  of  all 
parents ;  for,  though  it  be  impossible  and  absurd  to 
wish  that  every  young  man  should  grow  up  a  natur- 
alist by  profession,  yet  this  age  offers  no  more 
wholesome  training,  both  moral  and  intellectual, 
than  that  which  is  given  by  instilling  into  the  young 
an  early  taste  for  outdoor  physical  science.  The 
education  of  our  children  is  now  more  than  ever  a 
puzzling  problem,  if  by  education  we  mean  the 


38  GLAUCUS 

development  of  the  whole  humanity,  not  merely  of 
some  arbitrarily  chosen  part  of  it.  How  to  feed 
the  imagination  with  wholesome  food,  and  teach  it 
to  despise  French  novels,  and  that  sugared  slough 
of  sentimental  poetry,  in  comparison  with  which  the 
old  fairy-tales  and  ballads  were  manful  and  rational; 
how  to  counteract  the  tendency  to  shallow  and  con- 
ceited sciolism,  engendered  by  hearing  popular 
lectures  on  all  manner  of  subjects,  which  can  only 
be  really  learnt  by  stern  methodic  study;  how  to 
give  habits  of  enterprise,  patience,  accurate  obser- 
vation, which  the  counting-house  or  the  library  will 
never  bestow ;  above  all,  how  to  develop  the  phy- 
sical powers,  without  engendering  Brutality  and 
coarseness, — are  questions  becoming  daily  more  and 
more  puzzling,  while  they  need  daily  more  and 
more  to  be  solved,  in  an  age  of  enterprise,  travel, 
and  emigration,  like  the  present.  For  the  truth 
must  be  told,  that  the  great  majority  of  men  who 
are  now  distinguished  by  commercial  success,  have 
had  a  training  the  directly  opposite  to  that  which 
they  are  giving  to  their  sons.  They  are  for  the 
most  part  men  who  have  migrated  from  the  country 
to  the  town,  and  had  in  their  youth  all  the  advan- 
tages of  a  sturdy  and  manful  hill-side  or  sea-side 
training;  men  whose  bodies  were  developed,  and 
their  lungs  fed  on  pure  breezes,  long  before  they 
brought  to  work  in  the  city  the  bodily  and  mental 
strength  which  they  had  gained  by  loch  and  moor. 
But  it  is  not  so  with  their  sons.  Their  business 
habits  are  learnt  in  the  counting-house ;  a  good 
school,  doubtless,  as  far  as  it  goes :  but  one  which 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     39 

will  expand  none  but  the  lowest  intellectual  faculties; 
which  will  make  them  accurate  accountants,  shrewd 
computers  and  competitors,  but  never  the  originators 
of  daring  schemes,  men  able  and  willing  to  go  forth 
to  replenish  the  earth  and  subdue  it.  And  in  the 
hours  of  relaxation,  how  much  of  their  time  is 
thrown  away,  for  want  of  anything  better,  on  fri- 
volity, not  to  say  on  secret  profligacy,  parents  know 
too  well ;  and  often  shut  their  eyes  in  very  despair 
to  evils  which  they  know  not  how  to  cure.  A 
frightful  majority  of  our  middle-class  young  men 
are  growing  up  effeminate,  empty  of  all  knowledge 
but  what  tends  directly  to  the  making  of  a  fortune ; 
or  rather,  to  speak  correctly,  to  the  keeping  up  the 
fortunes  which  their  fathers  have  made  for  them ; 
while  of  the  minority,  who  are  indeed  thinkers  and 
readers,  how  many  women  as  well  as  men  have  we 
seen  wearying  their  souls  with  study  undirected, 
often  misdirected  ;  craving  to  learn,  yet  not  knowing 
how  or  what  to  learn;  cultivating,  with  unwhole- 
some energy,  the  head  at  the  expense  of  the  body 
and  the  heart ;  catching  up  with  the  most  capricious 
self-will  one  mania  after  another,  and  tossing  it 
away  again  for  some  new  phantom;  gorging  the 
memory  with  facts  which  no  one  has  taught  them 
to  arrange,  and  the  reason  with  problems  which 
they  have  no  method  for  solving;  till  they  fret 
themselves  into  a  chronic  fever  of  the  brain,  which 
too  often  urges  them  on  to  plunge,  as  it  were  to 
cool  the  inward  fire,  into  the  ever-restless  sea  of 
doubt  and  disbelief.  It  is  a  sad  picture.  There 
are  many  who  may  read  these  pages  whose  hearts 


40  GLAUCUS 

will  tell  them  that  it  is  a  true  one.  What  is  wanted 
in  these  cases  is  a  methodic  and  scientific  habit  of 
mind;  and  a  class  of  objects  on  which  to  exercise 
that  habit,  which  will  fever  neither  the  specu- 
lative intellect  nor  the  moral  sense;  and  those 
physical  science  will  give,  as  nothing  else  can 
give  it. 

Moreover,  to  revert  to  another  point  which  we 
touched  just  now,  man  has  a  body  as  well  as  a 
mind ;  and  with  the  vast  majority  there  will  be  no 
mens  sana  unless  there  be  a  corpus  sanum  for  it  to 
inhabit.  And  what  outdoor  training  to  give  our 
youths  is,  as  we  have  already  said,  more  than  ever 
puzzling.  This  difficulty  is  felt,  perhaps,  less  in 
Scotland  than  in  England.  The  Scottish  climate 
compels  hardiness;  the  Scottish  bodily  strength 
makes  it  easy;  and  Scotland,  with  her  mountain- 
tours  in  summer,  and  her  frozen  lochs  in  winter, 
her  labyrinth  of  sea-shore,  and,  above  all,  that 
priceless  boon  which  Providence  has  bestowed  on 
her,  in  the  contiguity  of  her  great  cities  to  the 
loveliest  scenery,  and  the  hills  where  every  breeze  is 
health,  affords  facilities  for  healthy  physical  life 
unknown  to  the  Englishman,  who  has  no  Arthur's 
Seat  towering  above  his  London,  no  Western  Islands 
sporting  the  ocean  firths  beside  his  Manchester. 
Field  sports,  with  the  invaluable  training  which 
they  give,  if  not 

"  the  reason  firm  ", 

yet  still 

"  the  temperate  will, 
Endurance,  foresight,  strength,  and  skill ", 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     41 

have  become  impossible  for  the  greater  number ; 
and  athletic  exercises  are  now,  in  England  at  least, 
so  artificialised,  so  expensive,  so  mixed  up  with 
drinking,  gambling,  and  other  evils  of  which  I 
need  say  nothing  here,  that  one  cannot  wonder  at 
any  parent's  shrinking  from  allowing  their  sons  to 
meddle  much  with  them.  And  yet  the  young  man 
who  has  had  no  substitute  for  such  amusements,  will 
cut  but  a  sorry  figure  in  Australia,  Canada,  or 
India ;  and  if  he  stays  at  home,  will  spend  many  a 
pound  in  doctors'  bills,  which  could  have  been  better 
employed  elsewhere.  'Taking  a  walk' — as  one 
would  take  a  pill  or  a  draught — seems  likely  soon 
to  become  the  only  form  of  outdoor  existence  pos- 
sible for  us  of  the  British  Isles.  But  a  walk  without 
an  object,  unless  in  the  most  lovely  and  novel  of 
scenery,  is  a  poor  exercise ;  and  as  a  recreation, 
utterly  nil.  I  never  knew  two  young  lads  go  out 
for  a  '  constitutional ',  who  did  not,  if  they  were 
commonplace  youths,  gossip  the  whole  way  about 
things  better  left  unspoken;  or,  if  they  were  clever 
ones,  fall  on  arguing  and  brainsbeating  on  politics 
or  metaphysics  from  the  moment  they  left  the  door, 
and  return  with  their  wits  even  more  heated  and 
tired  than  they  were  when  they  set  out.  I  cannot 
help  fancying  that  Milton  made  a  mistake  in  a 
certain  celebrated  passage ;  and  that  it  was  not 
'  sitting  on  a  hill  apart ',  but  tramping  four  miles 
out  and  four  miles  in  along  a  turnpike-road,  that 
his  hapless  spirits  discoursed 

"  Of  fate,  free-will,  foreknowledge  absolute, 
And  found  no  end,  in  wandering  mazes  lost ". 


42  GLAUCUS 

Seriously,  if  we  wish  rural  walks  to  do  our 
children  any  good,  we  must  give  them  a  love  for 
rural  sights,  an  object  in  every  walk;  we  must 
teach  them — and  we  can  teach  them — to  find  wonder 
in  every  insect,  sublimity  in  every  hedgerow,  the 
records  of  past  worlds  in  every  pebble,  and  bound- 
less fertility  upon  the  barren  shore ;  and  so,  by 
teaching  them  to  make  full  use  of  that  limited 
sphere  in  which  they  now  are,  make  them  faithful 
in  a  few  things,  that  they  may  be  fit  hereafter  to 
be  rulers  over  much. 

I  may  seem  to  exaggerate  the  advantages  of  such 
studies ;  but  the  question  after  all  is  one  of  experi- 
ence: and  I  have  had  experience  enough  and  to 
spare  that  what  I  say  is  true.  I  have  seen  the 
young  man  of  fierce  passions,  and  uncontrollable 
daring,  expend  healthily  that  energy  which  threat- 
ened daily  to  plunge  him  into  recklessness,  if  not 
into  sin,  upon  hunting  out  and  collecting,  through 
rock  and  bog,  snow  and  tempest,  every  bird  and  egg 
of  the  neighbouring  forest.  I  have  seen  the  culti- 
vated man,  craving  for  travel  and  for  success  in  life, 
pent  up  in  the  drudgery  of  London  work,  and  yet 
keeping  his  spirit  calm,  and  perhaps  his  morals  all 
the  more  righteous,  by  spending  over  his  microscope 
evenings  which  would  too  probably  have  gradually 
been  wasted  at  the  theatre.  I  have  seen  the  young 
London  beauty,  amid  all  the  excitement  and  tempta- 
tion of  luxury  and  flattery,  with  her  heart  pure 
and  her  mind  occupied  in  a  boudoir  full  of  shells 
and  fossils,  flowers  and  sea-weeds;  keeping  herself 
unspotted  from  the  world,  by  considering  the  lilies 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE     43 

of  the  field,  how  they  grow.  And  therefore  it 
is  that  I  hail  with  thankfulness  every  fresh 
book  of  Natural  History,  as  a  fresh  boon  to  the 
young,  a  fresh  help  to  those  who  have  to  educate 
them. 

The  greatest  difficulty  in  the  way  of  beginners  is 
(as  in  most  things)  how  '  to  learn  the  art  of  learn- 
ing'. They  go  out,  search,  find  less  than  they 
expected,  and  give  the  subject  up  in  disappoint- 
ment. It  is  good  to  begin,  therefore,  if  possible, 
by  playing  the  part  of  '  jackal '  to  some  practised 
naturalist,  who  will  show  the  tyro  where  to  look, 
what  to  look  for,  and,  moreover,  what  it  is  that  he 
has  found ;  often  no  easy  matter  to  discover.  Five- 
and-twenty  years  ago,  during  an  autumn's  work  of 
dead-leaf-searching  in  the  Devon  woods  for  poor  old 
Dr.  Turton1,  while  he  was  writing  his  book  on  British 
land-shells,  the  present  writer  learnt  more  of  the 
art  of  observing  than  he  would  have  learnt  in  three 
years'  desultory  hunting  on  his  own  account;  and 
he  has  often  regretted  that  no  naturalist  has  estab- 
lished shore-lectures  at  some  watering-place,  like 
those  up  hill  and  down  dale  field-lectures  which, 
in  pleasant  bygone  Cambridge  days,  Professor  Sedg- 
wick  used  to  give  to  young  geologists,  and  Professor 
Henslow2  to  young  botanists. 

This  want,  however,  bids  fair  to  be  supplied  at 

1  [William  Turton,  a  Swansea  doctor  and  conchologist ;  born 
1762,  died  1835.     His  "  Conchological  Dictionary  of  the  British 
Isles"  (1819)  was  in  its  day  a  very  useful  book.] 

2  [John  Stevens  Henslow,  educated  at  Rochester  and  Cambridge, 
born  1796,  died  1861.     He  wrote  several  books  on  botany  and 
agriculture.] 


44  GLAtJCUS 

last.  Mr.  Gosse1,  who  works  will  be  so  often 
quoted  in  these  pages,  has  now  established  summer 
shore-classes ;  and  I  advise  any  reader  whose  fancy 
such  a  project  pleases  to  apply  to  him  for  details 
of  the  scheme,  either  at  his  own  house  at  Torquay, 
or  at  the  Linnsean  or  Microscopic  Society. 

In  the  meanwhile,  to  show  something  of  what 
such  a  class  might  be,  let  me  put  myself,  in  ima- 
gination, in  Mr.  Gosse's  place,  and  do  his  work  for 
him  for  half-an-hour,  though  in  a  far  more  shallow 
and  clumsy  way. 

Leaving  Weymouth  to  him,  let  me  take  you  to 
a  shore  where  I  ain  more  at  home,  and  for  whose 
richness  I  can  vouch,  and  choose  our  season  and 
our  day  to  start  forth,  on  some  glorious  morning 
of  one  of  our  Italian  springs,  to  see  what  last 
night's  easterly  gale  has  swept  from  the  populous 
shallows  of  Torbay,  and  cast  up,  high  and  dry,  on 
Paignton  sands. 

Torbay  is  a  place  which  should  be  as  much 
endeared  to  the  naturalist  as  to  the  patriot  and  to 
the  artist.  We  cannot  gaze  on  its  blue  ring  of 
water,  and  the  great  limestone  bluffs  which  bound 
it  to  the  north  and  south,  without  a  glow  passing 
through  our  hearts,  as  we  remember  the  terrible  and 
glorious  pageant  which  passed  by  in  the  glorious 
July  days  of  1588,  when  the  Spanish  Armada 

1  [Philip  Henry  Gosse,  a  zoologist  of  repute,  born  1810,  died 
1888.  His  principal  works  are:  "Birds  of  Jamaica"  (1847), 
"Rambles  on  the  Devonshire  Coast"  (1853),  "The  Aquarium" 
(1854),  "A  Manual  of  Marine  Zoology"  (1855-6),  "Actinologia 
Britannica"  (1858-60),  and  "The  Romance  of  Natural  History" 
(1860-2).]  * 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     45 

ventured  slowly  past  Berry  Head,  with  Elizabeth's 
gallant  pack  of  Devon  captains  (for  the  London 
fleet  had  not  yet  joined)  following  fast  in  its  wake, 
and  dashing  into  the  midst  of  the  vast  line,  undis- 
mayed by  size  and  numbers,  while  their  kin  and 
friends  stood  watching  and  praying  on  the  cliffs, 
spectators  of  Britain's  Salamis.  The  white  line  of 
houses,  too,  on  the  other  side  of  the  bay,  is  Brix- 
ham,  famed  as  the  landing-place  of  William  of 
Orange ;  the  stone  on  the  pier-head,  which  marks 
his  first  footsteps  on  British  ground,  is  sacred  in  the 
eyes  of  all  true  English  Whigs ;  and  close  by  stands 
the  castle  of  the  settler  of  Newfoundland,  Sir 
Humphrey  Gilbert,1  Ealeigh's  half-brother,  most 
learned  of  all  Elizabeth's  admirals  in  life,  most 
pious  and  heroic  in  death.  And  as  for  scenery, 
though  it  can  boast  of  neither  mountain  peak  nor 
dark  fiord,  and  would  seem  tame  enough  in  the  eyes 
of  a  western  Scot  or  Irishman,  yet  Torbay  surely 
has  a  soft  beauty  of  its  own.  The  rounded  hills 
slope  gently  to  the  sea,  spotted  with  squares  of 
emerald  grass,  and  rich  red  fallow  fields,  and  parks 
full  of  stately  timber  trees.  Long  lines  of  tall  elms, 
just  flushing  green  in  the  spring  hedges,  run  down 
to  the  very  water's  edge,  their  boughs  unwarped 
by  any  blast;  here  and  there  apple  orchards  are 
just  bursting  into  flower  in  the  soft  sunshine,  and 
narrow  strips  of  water-meadow  line  the  glens,  where 
the  red  cattle  are  already  lounging  knee -deep  in 
richest  grass,  within  ten  yards  of  the  rocky  pebble 

1  [Born  about   1539  ;   drowned  in  a  storm  off  the  Southern 
Azores  in  1583.] 


46  GLAUCUS 

beach.  The  shore  is  silent  now,  the  tide  far  out: 
but  six  hours  hence  it  will  be  hurling  columns  of 
rosy  foam  high  into  the  sunlight,  and  sprinkling 
passengers,  and  cattle,  and  trim  gardens  which 
hardly  know  what  frost  and  snow  may  be,  but  see 
the  flowers  of  autumn  meet  the  flowers  of  spring, 
and  the  old  year  linger  smilingly  to  twine  a  garland 
for  the  new. 

No  wonder  that  such  a  spot  as  Torquay,  with  its 
delicious  Italian  climate,  and  endless  variety  of  rich 
woodland,  flowery  lawn,  fantastic  rock-cavern,  and 
broad  bright  tide-sand,  sheltered  from  every  wind 
of  heaven  except  the  soft  south-east,  should  have 
become  a  favourite  haunt,  not  only  for  invalids,  but 
for  naturalists.  Indeed,  it  may  well  claim  the 
honour  of  being  the  original  home  of  marine 
zoology  and  botany  in  England,  as  the  Frith  of 
Forth,  under  the  auspices  of  Sir  J.  G.  Dalyell,1  has 
been  for  Scotland.  For  here  worked  Montagu,2 
Turton,  and  Mrs.  Griffith,  to  whose  extraordinary 
powers  of  research  English  marine  botany  almost 
owes  its  existence,  and  who  still  survives,  at  an 
age  long  beyond  the  natural  term  of  man,  to  see, 
in  her  cheerful  and  honoured  old  age,  that  know- 
ledge become  popular  and  general,  which  she 
pursued  for  many  a  year  unassisted  and  alone. 
And  here  too,  now,  Dr.  Battersby  possesses  a  col- 
lection of  shells,  inferior,  perhaps,  to  hardly  any 
in  England.  Torbay,  moreover,  from  the  variety 

t1  Sir  John  Graham  Dalyell,  antiquary  and  naturalist,  born 
1775,  died  1851.] 

2  [George  Montagu,  born  1751,  died  1815,  author  of  the 
"Ornithological  Dictionary"  (1802).] 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHOKE      47 

of  its  rock,  aspects,  and  sea-floors,  where  limestones 
alternate  with  traps,  and  traps  with  slates,  while  at 
the  valley -mouths  the  soft  sandstones  and  hard 
conglomerates  of  the  new  red  series  slope  down 
into  the  tepid  and  shallow  waves,  affords  an 
abundance  and  variety  of  animal  and  vegetable 
life,  unequalled,  perhaps,  in  any  other  part  of 
Great  Britain.  It  cannot  boast,  certainly,  of  those 
strange  deep-sea  forms  which  Messrs.  Alder,1  Good- 
sir,2  and  Laskey  dredge  among  the  lochs  of  the 
western  Highlands,  and  the  sub-marine  mountain 
glens  of  the  Zetland  sea;  but  it  has  its  own 
varieties,  its  own  ever-fresh  novelties :  and  in  spite 
of  all  the  research  which  has  been  lavished  on  its 
shores,  a  naturalist  cannot  now  work  there  for  a 
winter  without  discovering  forms  new  to  science,  or 
meeting  with  curiosities  which  have  escaped  all 
observers,  since  the  lynx  eye  of  Montagu  espied 
them  full  fifty  years  ago. 

Follow  us,  then,  reader,  in  imagination,  out  of 
the  gay  watering-place,  with  its  London  shops  and 
London  equipages,  along  the  broad  road  beneath 
the  sunny  limestone  cliff',  tufted  with  golden  furze ; 
past  the  huge  oaks  and  green  slopes  of  Tor  Abbey ; 
and  past  the  fantastic  rocks  of  Livermead,  scooped 
by  the  waves  into  a  labyrinth  of  double  and  triple 
caves,  like  Hindoo  temples,  upborne  on  pillars 

1  [Joshua  Alder,   a  zoologist,  and  friend  of  Thomas  Bewick, 
born  1792,  and  died  1867.     He  published,  in  conjunction  with 
Albany  Hancock,  a  valuable  ' '  Manual  of  British  Nudibranchiate 
Slollusca,"  in  seven  folio  parts,  1845-55.] 

2  [John  Goodsir,  an  Edinburgh  anatomist  and  naturalist,  born 
1814,  died  1367.] 


48 


GLAUCUS 


banded  with  yellow  and  white  and  red,  a  week's 
study,  in  form  and  colour  and  chiaro-oscuro,  for 
any  artist;  and  a  mile  or  so  further  along  a  plea- 
sant road,  with  land-locked  glimpses  of  the  bay, 
to  the  broad  sheet  of  sand  which  lies  between 
the  village  of  Paignton  and  the  sea — sands  trodden 
a  hundred  times  by  Montagu  and  Turton,  perhaps, 
by  Dillwyn  and  Gaertner,  and  many  another  pioneer 
of  science.  And  once  there,  before  we  look  at  any- 
thing else,  come  down  straight  to  the  sea  marge ; 
for  yonder  lies,  just  left  by  the  retiring  tide,  a 
mass  of  life  such  as  you  will  seldom  see  again. 
It  is  somewhat  ugly,  perhaps,  at  first  sight ;  for 
ankle-deep  are  spread,  for  some  ten  yards  long  by 
five  broad,  huge  dirty  bivalve  shells,  as  large  as 
the  hand,  each  with  its  loathly  grey  and  black 


Lutraria  elliptica. 

siphons  hanging  out,  a  confused  mass  of  slimy 
death.  Let  us  walk  on  to  some  cleaner  heap,  and 
leave  these,  the  great  Lutraria  elliptica,  which 
have  been  lying  buried  by  thousands  in  the  sandy 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     49 


mud,  each  with  the  point  of  its  long  siphon  above 
the  surface,  sucking  in  and  driving  out  again  the 
salt  water  on  which  it  feeds,  till  last  night's  ground- 
swell  shifted  the  sea-bottom,  and  drove  them  up 
hither  to  perish  helpless,  but  not  useless,  on  the 
beach. 

See,  close  by  is  another  shell  bed,  quite  as  large, 
but  comely  enough  to  please  any  eye.  What  a 
variety  of  forms  and  colours  are 
there,  amid  the  purple  and  olive 
wreaths  of  wrack,  and  bladder- 
weed,  and  tangle  (oar-weed,  as 
they  call  it  in  the  south),  and 
the  delicate  green  ribbons  of  the 
Zostera  (the  only  English  flower- 
ing plant  which  grows  beneath 
the  sea),  surely  contradicting,  as 
do  several  other  forms,  that  some- 
what hasty  assertion  of  Mr.  Buskin 
that  Nature  makes  no  ribbons,  un- 
less with  a  midrib,  and  I  know 
not  what  other  limitations,  which 
seem  to  me  to  exist  only  in  Mr. 
Buskin's  fertile,  but  fastidious, 
fancy.  What  are  they  all  ?  What  are  the  long 
white  razors  ?  What  are  the  delicate  green-grey 
scimitars?  What  are  the  tapering  brown  spires? 
What  the  tufts  of  delicate  yellow  plants,  like 
squirrels'  tails,  and  lobsters'  horns,  and  tamarisks, 
and  fir  trees,  and  all  other  finely  cut  animal 
and  vegetable  forms?  What  are  the  groups  of 
grey  bladders,  with  something  like  a  little  bud  at 


Laminaria  digitata 
(oar-weed). 


50  GLAUCUS 

the  tip?  What  are  the  hundreds  of  little  pink- 
striked  pears?  What  those  tiny  babies'  heads, 
covered  with  grey  prickles  instead  of  hair?  The 
great  red  star-fish,  which  Ulster  children  call  'the 
bad  man's  hands';  and  the  great  whelks,  which 
the  youth  of  Musselburgh  know  as  'roaring  buckies', 
these  we  have  seen ;  but  what,  oh  what,  are  the  red 
capsicums  ? — 

Yes,  what  are  the  red  capsicums  ?  and  why  are 
they  poking,  snapping,  starting,  crawling,  tumbling 
wildly  over  each  other,  rattling  about  the  huge 
mahogany  cockles,  as  big  as  a  man's  two  fists,  out 
of  which  they  are  protruded  ?  Mark  them  well, 
for  you  will  perhaps  never  see  them  again.  They 
are  a  Mediterranean  species,  or  rather  three  species, 
left  behind  upon  these  extreme  south-western  coasts, 
probably  at  the  vanishing  of  that  warmer  ancient 
epoch,  which  clothed  the  Lizard  Point  with  the 
Cornish  heath,  and  the  Killarney  mountains  with 
Spanish  saxifrages,  and  other  relics  of  a  flora  whose 
home  is  now  the  Iberian  peninsula,  and  the  sunny 
cliffs  of  the  Kiviera.  Eare  in  every  other  shore, 
even  in  the  west,  it  abounds  in  Torbay  at  certain, 
or  rather  uncertain  times,  to  so  prodigious  an 
amount,  that  the  dredge,  after  five  minutes'  scrape, 
will  often  come  up  choke  full  of  this  great  cockle 
only.  You  will  see  tens  of  thousands  of  them 
in  every  cove  for  miles  this  day ;  a  seeming  waste 
of  life,  which  would  be  awful  in  our  eyes,  were  not 
the  Divine  Ruler,  as  His  custom  is,  making  this 
destruction  the  means  of  fresh  creation,  by  burying 
them  in  the  sands,  as  soon  as  washed  on  shore,  to 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     51 

fertilise  the  strata  of  some  future  world.  It  is  but 
a  shell-fish  truly ;  but  the  great  Cuvier1  thought  it 
remarkable  enough  to  devote  to  its  anatomy  elabo- 
rate descriptions  and  drawings,  which  have  done 
more  perhaps  than  any  others  to  illustrate  the 
curious  economy  of  the  whole  class  of  bivalve,  or 
double-shelled,  mollusca. 

That  red  capsicum  is  the  foot  of  the  animal  con- 
tained in  the  cockle-shell.  By  its  aid  it  crawls, 
leaps,  and  burrows  in  the  sand,  where  it  lies 
drinking  in  the  salt  water  through  one  of  its 
siphons,  and  discharging  it  again  through  the  other. 
Put  the  shell  into  a  rock  pool,  or  a  basin  of  water, 
and  you  will  see  the  siphons  clearly.  The  valves 
gape  apart  some  three  quarters  of  an  inch.  The 
semi-pellucid  orange  '  mantle '  fills  the  intermediate 
space.  Through  that  mantle,  at  the  end  from 
which  the  foot  curves,  the  siphons  protrude ;  two 
thick  short  tubes  joined  side  by  side,  their  lips 
fringed  with  pearly  cirri,  or  tentacles,  and  very 
beautiful  they  are.  The  larger  is  always  open, 
taking  in  the  water,  which  is  at  once  the  animal's 
food  and  air,  and  which,  flowing  over  the  delicate 
inner  surface  of  the  mantle,  at  once  oxygenates  its 
blood,  and  fills  its  stomach  with  minute  particles 
of  decayed  organised  matter.  The  smaller  is  shut. 
Wait  a  minute,  and  it  will  open  suddenly  and 
discharge  a  jet  of  clear  water,  which  has  been 
robbed,  I  suppose,  of  its  oxygen  and  its  organic 

1  [Georges  Chretien  Leopold  Dagobert,  Baron  Cuvier,  a  very 
eminent  French  naturalist ;  born  in  1769,  died  in  1832.  His 
"Regne  Animal"  is  a  very  voluminous  and  comprehensive  work, 
first  published  1816,  sqq.] 


52  GLAUCUS 

matter.  But,  I  suppose,  your  eyes  will  be  rather 
attracted  by  that  same  scarlet  and  orange  f9ot, 
which  is  being  drawn  in  and  thrust  out  to  a  length 
of  nearly  four  inches,  striking  with  its  point  against 
any  opposing  object,  and  sending  the  whole  shell 
backwards  with  a  jerk.  The  point,  you  see,  is 
sharp  and  tongue-like ;  only  flattened,  not  hori- 
zontally, like  a  tongue,  but  perpendicularly,  so  as 
to  form,  as  it  was  intended,  a  perfect  sand-plough, 
by  which  the  animal  can  move  at  will,  either  above 
or  below  the  surface  of  the  sand1. 

But  for  colour  and  shape,  to  what  shall  we  com- 
pare it?  To  polished  cornelian,  says  Mr.  Gosse. 
I  say,  to  one  of  the  great  red  capsicums  which 
hang  drying  in  every  Covent  Garden  seedsman's 
window.  Yet  is  either  simile  better  than  the  guess 
of  a  certain  Countess,  who,  entering  a  room  wherein 
a  couple  of  Cardium  tuberculatum  were  waltzing 
about  a  plate,  exclaimed,  "  Oh  dear !  I  always 
heard  that  my  pretty  red  coral  came  out  of  a  fish, 
and  here  it  is  all  alive  ! " 

"  C.  tuberculatum  ",  says  Mr.  Gosse  (who  described 
it  from  specimens  which  I  sent  him  in  1854)  "is 
far  the  finest  species.  The  valves  are  more  globose 
and  of  a  warmer  colour ;  those  that  I  have  seen  are 
even  more  spinous  ".  Such  may  have  been  the  case 
in  those  I  sent ;  but  it  has  occurred  to  me  now 


1  If  any  inland  reader  wishes  to  see  the  action  of  this  foot  in 
the  bivalve  Molluscs,  let  him  look  at  the  Common  Pond-Mussel 
(Anodon  cygneus),  which  he  will  find  in  most  stagnant  waters,  and 
see  how  he  burrows  with  it  in  the  mud,  and  how,  when  the  water 
is  drawn  off,  he  walks  solemnly  into  deeper  water,  leaving  a  furrow 
behind  him. 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     53 

and  then  to  dredge  specimens  of  C.  aculeatum, 
which  had  escaped  that  rolling  on  the  sand  fatal 
in  old  age  to  its  delicate  spines,  and  which  equalled 
in  colour,  size,  and  perfectness,  the  noble  one  figured 
in  poor  dear  old  Dr.  Turton's  "  British  Bivalves  ". 
Besides,  aculeatum  is  a  far  thinner  and  more 
delicate  shell.  And  a  third  species,  G.  echinatum, 
with  curves  more  graceful  and  continuous,  is  to  be 
found  now  and  then  with  the  two  former,  in  which 
each  point,  instead  of  degenerating  into  a  knot,  as 
in  tuberculatum,  or  developing  from  delicate,  flat, 
briar-prickles,  into  long,  straight  thorns,  as  in  acu- 
leatum, is  close-set  to  its  fellow,  and  curved  at  the 
point  transversely  to  the  shell,  the  whole  being  thus 
horrid  with  hundreds  of  strong  tenterhooks,  making 
his  castle  impregnable  to  the  raveners  of  the  deep. 
For  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  these  prickles  are 
meant  as  weapons  of  defence,  without  which  so 
savoury  a  morsel  as  the  mollusc  within  (cooked  and 
eaten  largely  on  some  parts  of  our  south  coast) 
would  be  a  staple  article  of  food  for  sea  beasts  of 
prey.  And  it  is  noteworthy,  first,  that  the  defensive 
thorns  which  are  permanent  on  the  two  thinner 
species,  aculeatum  and  echinatum,  disappear  alto- 
gether on  the  thicker  one,  tuberculatum,  as  old  age 
gives  him  a  solid  and  heavy  globose  shell;  and 
next,  that  he  too,  while  young  and  tender,  and  liable 
therefore  to  be  bored  through  by  whelks  and  such 
murderous  univalves,  does  actually  possess  the 
same  briar-prickles,  which  his  thinner  cousins  keep 
throughout  life.  Nevertheless,  (and  this  is  a  curious 
fact,  which  makes,  like  most  other  facts,  pretty 


54 


GLAUCUS 


strongly  against  the  transmutation  of  species,  and 
the  production  of  organs  by  circumstances  demand- 
ing them,)  prickles,  in  all  three  species,  are,  as  far 
as  we  can  see,  useless  in  Torbay,  where  no  seal 
or  wolf-fish  (Anarrhichas  lupus)  or  other  shell- 
crushing  pairs  of  jaws  wander,  terrible  to  lobster 
and  to  cockle.  Originally  intended,  as  we  suppose, 
to  face  the  strong-toothed  monsters  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, these  foreigners  have  been  left  behind 
on  shores  where  their  armour  is  not  now  needed; 
and  yet  centuries  of  idleness  and  security  have 
not  been  able  to  persuade  them  to  lay  it  by ;  as  it 
is  written,  "They  continue  this  day  as  at  the  be- 
ginning; Thou  hast  given  them  a  law  which  shall 
never  be  broken  ". 

Enough  of  Cardium  tuberculatum.  Now  for 
the  other  animals  of  the  heap ;  and  first,  for  those 
long  white  razors.  They,  as  well  as  the  grey 
scimitars,  are  solens,  Kazor- 
fish  (Solen  siliqua  and  Solen 
ensis),  burrowers  in  the  sand 
by  that  foot  which  protrudes 


(1)  Solen  vagina;    (2)  Solen 
eusis  ;  (3)  Pharus  legumen. 


Shells  :  la  and  b,  Solen  vagina  ;  2a 
and  b,  Solen  ensis ;  3a  and  b, 
Pharus  legumen. 


THE  WOKDEES  OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     55 


from  one  end,  nimble  in  escaping  from  the  Torquay 
boys,  whom  you  will  see  boring  for  them  with  a 
long  iron  screw,  on  the  sands  at  low  tide.  They 
are  very  good  to  eat,  these  razor-fish ;  at  least,  for 
those  who  so  think  them,  and  abound  in  millions 
upon  all  our  sandy  shores. 

Now  for  the  tapering  brown  spires.  They  are 
Turritellse,  snail-like  animals  (though  the  form  of 
shell  is  different),  who  crawl  and, 
browse  by  thousands  on  the  beds 
of  Zostera,  or  grass  wrack,  which 
you  see  thrown  about  on  the 
beach,  and  which  grows  natu- 
rally in  two  or  three  fathoms 
water.  Stay :  here  is  one  which 
is  '  more  than  itself '.  On  its 
back  is  mounted  a  cluster  of 
barnacles  (Balanus  porcatus),  of 
the  same  family  as  those  which 
stud  the  tide-rocks  in  millions, 
scratching  the  legs  of  hapless 
bathers.  Of  them,  I  will  speak  Balanus  porcatus. 
presently ;  for  I  may  have  a  still  more  curious 
member  of  the  family  to  show  you.  But  mean- 
while, look  at  the  mouth  of  the  shell ;  a  long  grey 
worm  protrudes  from 
it,  which  is  not  the 
rightful  inhabitant. 
He  is  dead  long  since, 
and  his  place  has  been 
occupied  by  one  Si- 
punculus  Bernhardi;  a 

Sipunculus  Bernhardi. 


56  GLAUCUS 

wight  of  low  degree,  who  connects  'radiate'  with 
annulate  forms — in  plain  English,  sea-cucumbers  (of 
which  we  shall  see  some  soon)  with  sea- worms.  But 
however  low  in  the  scale  of  comparative  anatomy, 
he  has  wit  enough  to  take  care  of  himself;  mean, 

ugly,  little  worm 
as  he  seems.  For 
finding  the  mouth 
of  the  Turritella 
too  big  for  him, 
he  has  plastered  it 
up  with  sand  and 
mud  (Heaven  alone 
knows  how),  just  as 
a  wry -neck  plasters 
up  a  hole  in  an 
apple  tree,  when 
she  intends  to  build 
therein,  and  has  left 
only  a  round  hole, 
out  of  which  he  can 
filicula,  (2*)  portion  poke  his  proboscis. 
A  curious  thing  is 
this  proboscis,  when 
seen  through  the 
field-glass.  You  perceive  a  ring  of  tentacles  round 
the  mouth,  for  picking  up  I  know  not  what;  and 
you  will  perceive,  too,  if  you  watch  it,  that  when 
he  draws  it  in,  he  turns  mouth,  tentacles  and  all, 
inwards,  and  so  down  into  his  stomach,  just  as  if 
you  were  to  turn  the  finger  of  a  glove  inward  from 
the  tip  till  it  passed  into  the  hand ;  and  so  per- 


PLATE  IV 


Andre  &  Sleigh,  Ltd. 
3.    AIPTASIA  CONCH  1 1. 
ANTHEA  CEREUS.  4.     SAGARTIA  COCCINEA. 

5.    S.  TROGLODYTES. 


P.  H.  G.  Del. 

1.     BOLOCERA  TUEDI/C, 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     57 


forms,  every  time  he  eats,  the  clown's  as  yet  ideal 
feat,  of  jumping  down 
his  own  throat. 

So  much  have  we  seen 
on  one  little  shell.  But 
there  is  more  to  see  close 
'  to  it.  Those  yellow  plants 
which  I  likened  to  squir- 
rels' tails  and  lobsters' 
horns,  and  what  not,  are 


Sertularia  abietina. 

zoophytes  of  different 
kinds.  Here  is  Sertu- 
laria argentea  (true 
squirrel's  tail) ;  here, 
S.  filicula,  as  delicate  as 
tangled  threads  of  glass. 
Here,  abietina;  here,  ro- 
sacea  (see  p.  29).  The 
lobsters'  horns  are  an- 
tennularia  antennina ; 
and  mingled  with  them 
are  Plumulariae,  always 
to  be  distinguished  from 
Sertulariae  by  polypes 


Anteunularia  autennina, 
portion  magnified. 


58 


GLAUCUS 


growing  on  one  side  of  the  branch,  and  not  on  both. 
Here  is  falcata,  with  its  roots  twisted  round  a  sea- 
weed. Here  is  cristata,  on  the  same  weed ;  and  here 
is  a  piece  of  the  beautiful  myriophyllum,  which  has 
been  battered  in  its  long  journey  out  of  the  deep 
water  about  the  ore  rock.  For  all  these  you  must 
consult  Johnston's  "Zoophytes",  and  for  a  dozen 


Plumularia  falcata. 


Plum,  cristata,  with 
portion  magnified. 


Plum,  myrio- 
phyllum. 


smaller  species,  which  you  would  probably  find 
tangled  among  them,  or  parasitic  on  the  sea-weed. 
Here  are  Flustrse,  or  Sea-mats.  This,  which  smells 
very  like  verbena,  is  Flustra  foliacea.  That  scurf 
on  the  frond  of  oar  weed  is  F.  lineata.  The  glass 
bells  twined  about  this  Sertularia  are  Campanularia 
syringa;  and  here  is  a  tiny  plant  of  Cellularia 
ciliata.  Look  at  it  through  the  field-glass ;  for  it  is 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE      59 


Flustra  foliacea. 
Natural   size  ;  with 
some   cells  mag- 
nified. 


truly  wonderful.  Each  polype  cell  is  edged  with 
whip-like  spines,  and  on  the  back  of  some  of  them 
is — what  is  it,  but  a  live  vulture's  head,  snapping 
and  snapping 
—what  for?  'tr( 

Nay,  reader, 
I  am  here  to 
show  you  what 
can  be  seen ; 
but  as  for  tell- 
ing you  what 
can  be  known, 
much  more 
what  cannot,  I 
decline;  and 
refer  you  to 
Johnston's  "Zoophytes",  wherein  you  will  find 
that  several  species  of  polypes  carry  these  same 
birds'  heads:  but  whether  they  be  parts  of  the 
polype,  and  of  what  use  they  are,  no  man  living 
knoweth. 

Next,  what  are  the  giant  striped  pears?  They 
are  sea-anemones,  and  of  a  species  only  lately 
well-known,  Sagartia  viduata,  the  snake -locked 
anemone.  They  have  been 
washed  off  the  loose  stones  to 
which  they  usually  adhere  by 
the  pitiless  roll  of  the  ground- 
swell  ;  but  they  are  not  so  far 
gone,  but  that  if  you  take  one 
of  them  home,  and  put  it  in  a 
Campanularia  syringa.  J^  of  water,  it  will  expand 


60 


GLAUCUS 


into  a  delicate  compound  flower,  which  can  neither 
be  described  nor  painted,  of  long  pellucid  tentacles, 
hanging  like  a  thin  bluish  cloud  over  a  disc  of 
mottled  brown  and  grey. 


Cellularia  ciliata. 
(1)  Natural  size ;  (2)  portion  of  same  magnified. 

Here,  adhering  to  this  large  whelk,  is  another, 
but  far  larger  and  coarser.  It  is  Sagartia  parasitica, 
one  of  our  largest  British  species ;  and  most  sin- 
gular in  this,  that  it  is  almost  always  (in  Torbay, 
at  least,)  found  adhering  to  a  whelk :  but  never  to 
a  live  one;  and  for  this  reason.  The  live  whelk 
(as  you  may  see  for  yourself  when  the  tide  is  out) 
burrows  in  the  sand  in  chase  of  hapless  bivalve 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHOEE     61 


shells,  whom  he  bores  through  with  his  sharp 
tongue  (always,  cunning  fellow,  close  to  the  hinge, 
where  the  fish  is),  and  then  sucks  out  their  life. 
Now,  if  the  anemone  stuck  to  him,  it  would  be 


Sagartia  parasitica. 


carried  under  the  sand  daily,  to  its  own  disgust. 
It  prefers,  therefore,  the  dead  whelk,  inhabited  by 
a  soldier  crab,  Pagurus  Bernhardi,  of  which  you 
may  find  a  dozen  anywhere  as  the  tide  goes  out; 
and  travels  about  at  the 
crab's  expense,  sharing 
with  him  the  offal  which 
is  his  food.  Note,  more- 
over, that  the  soldier  crab 
is  the  most  hasty  and 
blundering  of  marine  ani- 

mals,  as  active  as  a  mon-  Pagurus  Bernhardi 

key,    and    as    Subject    to  (Hermit-crab). 


GLAUCUS 


panics  as  a  horse ;  wherefore,  the  poor  anemone  on 
his  back  must  have  a  hard  life  of  it ;  being  knocked 
about  against  rocks  and  shells,  without  warning, 
from  morn  to  night  and  night  to  morn.  Against 
which  danger,  kind  Nature,  ever  maxima  in  minimis, 
has  provided  by  fitting  him  with  a  stout  leather 
coat,  which  she  has  given  to  no  other  of  his  family. 

Next  for  the  babies'  heads  covered  with  prickles 
instead  of  hair.  They  are  sea-urchins,  Amphidotus 
cordatus,  which  burrow 
by  thousands  in  the  sand. 
These  are  of  that  Spa- 
tangoid  form,  which  you 
will  often  find  fossil  in 
the  chalk,  and  which 
shepherd  boys  call 
snakes'  heads.  We  shall 
soon  find  another  sort,  an 
Echinus,  and  have  time 
to  talk  over  these  most 
strange  (in  my  eyes)  of 
all  living  animals. 

There  are  a  hundred 
Amphidotus  cordatus  more  things  to  be  talked 

(Common  Heart-urchin).          of    here ;     but    W6    must 

defer  the  examination  of  them  till  our  return ;  for 
it  wants  an  hour  yet  of  the  dead  low  spring-tide ; 
and  ere  we  go  home,  we  will  spend  a  few  minutes 
at  least  on  the  rocks  at  Livermead,  where  awaits 
us  a  strong-backed  quarryman,  with  a  strong-backed 
crowbar,  as  is  to  be  hoped  (for  he  snapped  one  right 
across  there  yesterday,  falling  miserably  on  his  back 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     63 

into  a  pool  thereby),  and  we  will  verify  Mr.  Gosse's 
observation,  that 

"  When  once  we  have  begun  to  look  with  curi- 
osity on  the  strange  things  that  ordinary  people 
pass  over  without  notice,  our  wonder  is  continually 
excited  by  the  variety  of  phase,  and  often  by  the 
uncoutlmess  of  form,  under  which  some  of  the 
meaner  creatures  are  presented  to  us.  And  this 
is  very  specially  the  case  with  the  inhabitants  of 
the  sea.  We  can  scarcely  poke  or  pry  for  an  hour 
among  the  rocks,  at  low-water  marl*:,  or  walk,  with 
an  observant  downcast  eye,  along  the  beach  after  a 
gale,  without  finding  some  oddly-fashioned,  suspi- 
cious-looking being,  unlike  any  form  of  life  that 
we  have  seen  before.  The  dark  concealed  interior 
of  the  sea  becomes  thus  invested  with  a  fresh  mys- 
tery ;  its  vast  recesses  appear  to  be  stored  with  all 
imaginable  forms;  and  we  are  tempted  to  think 
there  must  be  multitudes  of  living  creatures  whose 
very  figure  and  structure  have  never  yet  been  sus- 
pected. 

"  '  O  sea  !  old  sea  !  who  yet  knows  half 
Of  thy  wonders  or  thy  pride  ! ' " 

Gosse's  Aquarium,  pp.  226-7. 

But  first,  as  after  descending  the  gap  in  the  sea- 
wall we  walk  along  the  ribbed  floor  of  hard  yellow 
sand,  be  so  kind  as  to  give  a  sharp  look-out  for 
a  round  grey  disc,  about  as  big  as  a  penny-piece, 
peeping  out  on  the  surface.  No ;  that  is  not  it, 
that  little  lump :  open  it,  and  you  will  find  within 
one  of  the  common  little  Venus  gallina.  (They 
have  given  it  some  new  name  now,  and  no  thanks 


64  GLAUCUS 

to  them:  they  are  always  changing  the  names, 
those  closet  collectors,  instead  of  studying  the  live 
animals  where  Nature  has  put  them,  in  which  case 
they  would  have  no  time  for  word-inventing.  Nay, 
I  verily  suspect  that  the  names  grow,  like  other 
things;  at  least,  they  get  longer  and  longer  and 
more  jaw-breaking  every  year.)  The  little  bivalve, 
however,  finding  itself  left  by  the  tide,  has  wisely 
shut  up  its  siphons,  and,  by  means  of  its  foot  and 
its  edges,  buried  itself  in  a  comfortable  bath  of  cool 
wet  sand,  till  the  sea  shall  come  back,  and  make 
it  safe  to  crawl  and  lounge  about  on  the  surface, 
smoking  the  sea-water  instead  of  tobacco.  Neither 
is  that  lump  what  we  seek.  Touch  it,  and  out  poke 
a  pair  of  astonished  and  inquiring  horns  and  a 
little  sharp  muzzle:  it  is  a  long-armed  crab,  who 
saw  us  coming,  and  wisely  shovelled  himself  into 
the  sand  by  means  of  his  nether-end.  Neither  is 
that ;  though  it  might  be  the  hole  down  which  what 
we  seek  has  vanished :  but  that  burrow  contains 
one  of  the  long  white  razors  which  you  saw  cast  on 
shore  at  Paignton.  The  boys  close  by  are  boring  for 
them  with  iron  rods  armed  with  a  screw,  and  taking 
them  in  to  sell  in  Torquay  market,  as  excellent  food. 
But  there  is  one,  at  last ! — a  grey  disc  pouting  up 
through  the  sand.  Touch  it,  and  it  is  gone  down 
quick  as  light.  We  must  dig  it  out,  and  carefully, 
for  it  is  a  delicate  monster.  At  last,  after  ten 
minutes'  careful  work,  we  have  brought  up,  from 
a  foot  depth  or  more — what  ?  A  thick,  dirty,  slimy 
worm,  without  head  or  tail,  form  or  colour.  A  slug 
has  more  artistic  beauty  about  him.  Be  it  so.  At 


THE   WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     65 


home  in  the  aquarium  (where,  alas !  he  will  live 
but  for  a  day  or  two,  under  the  new  irritation  of 
light),  he  will  make  a  very  different  figure.     That 
is  one  of  the  rarest  of 
British    sea -animals, 
Peachia   hastata, 
which     differs     from 
most    other    British 
Actiniae  in  this,  that 
instead  of  having  like 
them  a  walking  disc, 
it    has    a    free    open 
lower  end,  with  which 
(I  know  not  how)  it 
buries   itself    upright       Conchula  and  mouth  of  Peachia 
r    °  hastata. 

in  the  sand,  with  its 

mouth  just  above  the  surface.  The  figure  repre- 
sents the  conchula  and  mouth,  showing  a  curious 
cluster  of  papillae,  which  project  from  one  side 
of  the  mouth,  and  are  the  opening  of  the  ovi- 
duct. But  his  value  consists,  not  merely  in  his 
beauty  (though  that,  really,  is  not  small),  but  in 
his  belonging  to  what  the  long-word-makers  call 
an  '  interosculant '  group, — a  party  of  genera  and 
species  which  connect  families  scientifically  far 
apart,  filling  up  a  fresh  link  in  the  great  chain, 
or  rather  the  great  network,  of  zoological  classifi- 
cation. For  here  we  have  a  simple,  and,  as  it 
were,  crude  form ;  of  which,  if  we  dared  to  in- 
dulge in  reveries,  we  might  say  that  the  Divine 
Word  realised  it  before  either  sea-anemones  or 
Holothurians,  and  then  went  on  to  perfect  the  idea 
F 


66  GLAUCUS 

contained  in  it  in  two  different  directions ;  dividing 
it  into  two  different  families,  and  making  on  its 
model,  by  adding  new  organs,  and  taking  away  old 
ones,  in  one  direction  the  whole  family  of  Actinias 
(sea-anemones),  and  in  a  quite  opposite  one  the 
Holothuriae,  those  strange  sea-cucumbers,  with  their 
mouth-fringe  of  feathery  gills,  of  which  you  shall 
see  some  anon.  Not  (understand  well)  that  there 
has  been  any  '  transmutation '  or  '  development 
of  species '  (of  individuals,  as  it  ought  honestly  to 
be  called,  if  the  notion  is  intended  to  represent 
a  supposed  fact) — a  theory  as  unsupported  by  ex- 
periment and  induction,  as  it  is  by  a  priori  reason ; 
but  that  there  has  been,  in  the  Creative  Mind,  as 
it  gave  life  to  new  species,  a  development  of  the 
idea  on  which  older  species  were  created,  in  order 
that  every  mesh  of  the  great  net  might  gradually 
be  supplied,  and  there  should  be  no  gaps  in  the 
perfect  variety  of  Nature's  forms.  This  develop- 
ment is  the  only  one  of  which  we  can  conceive, 
if  we  allow  that  a  Mind  presides  over  the  universe, 
and  not  a  mere  brute  necessity,  a  Law  (absurd 
misnomer)  without  a  Lawgiver ;  and  to  it  (strangely 
enough  coinciding  here  and  there  with  the  Platonic 
doctrine  of  Eternal  Ideas  existing  in  the  Divine 
Mind)  all  fresh  inductive  discovery  seems  to  point 
more  and  more;  and  especially  Professor  Owen's 
invaluable  tracts  on  the  Homology  of  the  Vertebrate 
Skeleton. 

Let  us  speak  freely  a  few  words  on  this  important 
matter.  Geology  has  disproved  the  old  popular 
belief  that  the  universe  was  brought  into  being  as 


THE   WONDERS   OF  THE  SEASHORE      67 

it  now  exists,  by  a  single  fiat.  We  know  that  the 
work  has  been  gradual ;  that  the  earth 

"  In  tracts  of  fluent  heat  began, 
The  seeming  prey  of  cyclic  storms, 
The  home  of  seeming  random  forms, 
Till,  at  the  last,  arose  the  man  ". 

And  we  know,  also,  that  these  forms,  seeming 
random  as  they  are,  have  appeared  according  to 
a  law  which,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  has  been  only 
the  whole  one  of  progress, — lower  animals  (though 
we  cannot  say,  the  lowest)  appearing  first,  and  man, 
the  highest  mammal,  'the  roof  and  crown  of  things', 
one  of  the  latest  in  the  series.  We  have  no  more 
right,  let  it  be  observed,  to  say  that  man,  the 
highest,  appeared  last,  than  that  the  lowest  ap- 
peared first.  Both  may  have  been  the  case ;  but 
there  is  utterly  no  proof  of  either ;  and  as  we  know 
that  species  of  animals  lower  than  those  which 
already  existed  appeared  again  and  again  during 
the  various  eras,  so  it  is  quite  possible  that  they 
may  be  appearing  now,  and  may  appear  hereafter : 
and  that  for  every  extinct  Dodo  or  Moa,  a  new 
species  may  be  created,  to  keep  up  the  equilibrium 
of  the  whole.  This  is  but  a  surmise :  but  it  may 
be  wise,  perhaps,  just  now,  to  confess  boldly,  even 
to  insist  on,  its  possibility,  lest  the  advocates  of  the 
'Vestiges  of  Creation'  theory  should  claim  the 
notion  as  making  for  them,  and  fancy,  from  our 
unwillingness  to  allow  it,  that  there  would  be  aught 
in  it,  if  proved,  contrary  to  Christianity. 

Let  us,  therefore,  say  boldly,  that  there  has  been 


68  GLAUCUS 

a  '  progress  of  species ',  and  that  there  may  be 
again,  in  the  true  sense  of  that  term:  but  say,  as 
boldly,  that  the  Transmutation  theory  is  not  one  of 
a  progress  of  species  at  all,  which  would  be  a  change 
in  the  idea  of  the  species,  taking  place  in  the  Divine 
Mind, — in  plain  words,  the  creation  of  a  new  species. 
What  the  Transmutationists  really  mean,  if  they 
would  express  themselves  clearly,  or  carefully  ana- 
lyse their  own  notions,  is  a  physical  and  actual 
change,  not  of  species,  but  of  individuals,  of  already 
existing  living  beings  created  according  to  one  idea, 
into  other  living  beings  created  according  to  another 
idea.  And  of  this,  in  spite  of  the  apparent  change 
of  species  in  the  marvellous  metamorphoses  of  lower 
animals,  Nature  has  as  yet  given  us  no  instance 
among  all  the  facts  which  have  been  observed ;  and 
there  is,  therefore,  an  almost  infinite  inductive  pro- 
bability against  it.  As  far  as  we  know  yet,  though 
all  the  dreams  of  the  Transmutationists  are  outdone 
by  the  transformations  of  many  a  polype,  yet  the 
species  remain  as  permanent  and  strongly  marked 
as  in  the  highest  mammal.  Such  progress  as  ex- 
perimental science  actually  shows  us,  is  quite  awful 
and  beautiful  enough  to  keep  us  our  lives  long  in 
wonder ;  but  it  is  one  which  perfectly  agrees  with, 
and  may  be  perfectly  explained  by,  the  simple  old 
belief  which  the  Bible  sets  before  us,  of  a  LIVING 
GOD  :  not  a  mere  past  will,  such  as  the  Koran  sets 
forth,  creating  once  and  for  all,  and  then  leaving 
the  universe,  to  use  Goethe's  simile,  "  to  spin  round 
his  finger";  nor  again,  an  "all-pervading  spirit", 
words  which  are  mere  contradictory  jargon,  con- 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHOKE     69 

cealing,  from  those  who  utter  them,  blank  Mate- 
rialism :  but  One  who  works  in  all  things  which 
have  obeyed  Him  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good 
pleasure,  keeping  His  abysmal  and  self -perfect  pur- 
pose, yet  altering  the  methods  by  which  that  purpose 
is  attained,  from  eeon  to  seon,  ay,  from  moment  to 
moment,  for  ever  various,  yet  for  ever  the  same. 
This  great  and  yet  most  blessed  paradox  of  the 
Changeless  God,  who  yet  can  say  "It  repenteth 
Me ",  and  "  Behold,  I  work  a  new  thing  on  the 
earth ",  is  revealed  no  less  by  nature  than  by 
Scripture;  the  changeableness,  not  of  caprice  or  im- 
perfection, but  of  an  Infinite  Maker  and  "  Poietes  ", 
drawing  ever  fresh  forms  out  of  the  inexhaustible 
treasury  of  the  primeval  mind;  and  yet  never 
throwing  away  a  conception  to  which  He  has  once 
given  actual  birth  in  time  and  space,  (but  to  com- 
pare reverently  small  things  and  great)  lovingly 
repeating  it,  reapplying  it ;  producing  the  same 
effects  by  endlessly  different  methods;  or  so  deli- 
cately modifying  the  method  that,  as  by  the  turn  of 
a  hair,  it  shall  produce  endlessly  diverse  effects ; 
looking  back,  as  it  were,  ever  and  anon  over  the 
great  work  of  all  the  ages,  to  retouch  it,  and  fill 
up  each  chasm  in  the  scheme,  which  for  some  good 
purpose  had  been  left  open  in  earlier  worlds ;  or 
leaving  some  open  (the  forms,  for  instance,  neces- 
sary to  connect  the  bimana  and  the  quadrumana) 
to  be  filled  up  perhaps  hereafter  when  the  world 
needs  them ;  the  handiwork,  in  short,  of  a  living 
and  loving  MIND,  perfect  in  His  own  eternity,  but 
stooping  to  work  in  time  and  space,  and  there  re- 


70  GLAUCUS 

joicing  himself  in  the  work  of  His  own  hands,  and 
in  His  eternal  Sabbaths  ceasing  to  rest  ineffable, 
that  He  may  look  on  that  which  He  hath  made, 
and  behold  it  is  very  good. 

I  speak,  of  course,  under  correction;  for  this 
conclusion  is  emphatically  matter  of  induction,  and 
must  be  verified  or  modified  by  ever-fresh  facts :  but 
I  meet  with  many  a  Christian  passage  in  scientific 
books,  which  seems  to  me  to  go,  not  too  far,  but 
rather  not  far  enough,  in  asserting  the  God  of  the 
Bible,  as  Saint  Paul  says,  "  not  to  have  left  Himself 
without  witness,"  in  nature  itself,  that  He  is  the  God 
of  grace.  Why  speak  of  the  God  of  nature  and  the 
God  of  grace  as  two  antithetical  terms  ?  The  Bible 
never,  in  a  single  instance,  makes  the  distinction ; 
and  surely,  if  God  be  (as  He  is)  the  Eternal  and 
Unchangeable  One,  and  if  (as  we  all  confess)  the 
universe  bears  the  impress  of  His  signet,  we  have 
no  right,  in  the  present  infantile  state  of  science, 
to  put  arbitrary  limits  of  our  own  to  the  revelation 
which  He  may  have  thought  good  to  make  of  Him- 
self in  nature.  Nay,  rather,  let  us  believe  that,  if 
our  eyes  were  opened,  we  should  fulfil  the  re- 
quirement of  Genius,  to  "  see  the  universal  in  the 
particular",  by  seeing  God's  whole  likeness,  His 
whole  glory,  reflected  as  in  a  mirror  even  in  the 
meanest  flower;  and  that  nothing  but  the  dulness 
of  our  own  sinful  souls  prevents  them  from  seeing 
day  and  night  in  all  things,  however  small  or 
trivial  to  human  eclecticism,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
Himself  fulfilling  His  own  saying,  "My  Father 
worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work". 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     71 

And  therefore,  when  we  meet  with  such  an  excel- 
lent passage  as  this 

"Thus  it  is  that  Nature  advances  step  by  step, 
gradually  bringing  out,  through  successive  stages  of 
being,  new  organs  and  new  faculties;  and  leaving, 
as  she  moves  along,  at  every  step,  some  animals 
which  rise  no  higher,  as  if  to  serve  for  landmarks 
of  her  progress  through  all  succeeding  time.  And 
this  it  is  which  makes  the  study  of  comparative 
anatomy  so  fascinating.  Not  that  I  mean  to  favour 
a  theory  of  '  development ',  which  would  obliterate 
all  idea  of  species,  by  supposing  that  the  more 
compound  animal  forms  were  developments  of  their 
simple  ancestors.  For  such  an  hypothesis,  Nature 
gives  us  no  evidence:  but  she  gives  us,  through 
all  her  domains,  the  most  beautiful  and  diversified 
proofs  of  an  adherence  to  a  settled  order,  by  which 
new  combinations  are  continually  brought  out.  In 
this  order,  the  lowest  grades  of  being  have  certain 
characters,  above  which  they  do  not  rise,  but  propa- 
gate beings  as  simple  as  themselves.  Above  them 
are  others  which,  passing  through  stages  in  their 
infancy  equal  to  the  adult  condition  of  those  below 
them,  acquire,  when  at  maturity,  a  perfection  of  or- 
gans peculiarly  their  own.  Others  again  rise  above 
these,  and  their  structures  become  more  gradually 
compound ;  till,  at  last,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
simpler  animals  represent,  as  in  a  glass,  the  scattered 
organs  of  the  higher  races" — Harvey's  Sea-side  Book, 
p.  166. 

When  I  read  such  a  passage  as  this,  and  confess, 
as  I  must,  its  truth,  I  cannot  help  sighing  over 


72  GLAUCTJS 

certain  expressions  in  it,  which  do  unintentionally 
coincide  with  the  very  theory  which  Professor 
Harvey  denies.  Is  this  progress  supposed  to  take 
place  in  time  and  space? — or  in  the  mind  of  a  Being 
above  time  and  space,  who  afterwards  reduces  to  act 
and  fact,  in  time  and  space,  just  so  much  and  on 
more  of  that  progress  as  shall  seem  good  to  Him, 
some  here,  some  there ;  not  binding  Himself  to 
begin  at  the  lowest,  and  end  with  the  highest,  but 
compensating  and  balancing  the  lower  with  the  higher 
in  each  successive  stage  of  our  planet?  This  last  is 
what  the  Professor  really  means,  I  doubt  not :  but 
then,  would  that  he  had  said  boldly,  that  'God',  and 
not  'Nature',  is  the  agent.  So  would  he  have 
raised  at  once  the  whole  matter  from  the  ground  of 
destiny  to  that  of  will,  from  the  material  and  logical 
ground  to  the  moral  and  spiritual,  from  time  and 
space  into  ever-present  eternity.  To  me  it  seems 
(to  sum  up,  in  a  few  words,  what  I  have  tried  to  say) 
that  such  development  and  progress  as  have  as  yet 
been  actually  discovered  in  nature,  have  been 
proved,  especially  by  Professor  Sedgwick  and  Mr. 
Hugh  Miller,  to  bear  every  trace  of  having  been 
produced  by  successive  acts  of  thought  and  will 
in  some  personal  mind ;  which,  however  bound- 
lessly rich  and  powerful,  is  still  the  Archetype 
of  the  human  mind;  and  therefore  (for  to  this  I 
boldly  confess  I  have  been  all  along  tending) 
probably  capable,  without  violence  to  its  pro- 
perties, of  becoming,  like  the  human  mind, 

INCAKNATE. 

This  progress,  then,  in  the  divine  works,  though 


P.  H.  G.  Del. 

1-6.     ACTINIA  MESEMBRYANTHEMUM.  9. 

7.  A.                CHIOCOCCA.  10. 

8.  SAGARTIA  CHRYSOSPLENIUM.  11. 


Andre  &  Sleigh,  Lt 
ANTHEA  CEREUS. 
TEALIA  DIGITATA. 
SAGARTIA  VIDUATA. 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE      73 

tending  ever  to  perfection  in  the  very  highest  sense, 
need  not  be  always  forward  and  upward,  according 
to  the  laws  of  comparative  anatomy.  It  is  possible, 
therefore,  on  the  one  hand,  that  the  idea  of  the 
Chrysanthellum,  and  its  congeners  Scolanthus,  and 
Synapta,  and  the  lately  -  discovered  Cerianthus 
Lloydii  of  the  Menai  Straits,  (an  exquisite  creature, 
whom  you  may  see  in  one  of  the  tanks  at  the 
Zoological  Gardens),  has  been  developed  downwards 
into  the  far  lower  Actinia,  as  well  as  upwards  into 
the  higher  Holothurians ;  just  as  the  idea  of  a  fish 
was  first  realised  in  the  highest  type  of  that  class, 
and  not,  as  has  been  too  hastily  supposed,  in  the 
lowest ;  for  it  is  now  discovered  that  the  sharks, 
the  earliest  of  fish,  are  really  higher,  not  lower,  in 
the  scale  of  creation,  than  those  salmons  and  perches 
which  we  from  habit  consider  the  archetypes  and 
lords  of  the  finny  tribes.  And  it  is  equally  possible 
that  all  our  dream  (though  right  in  many  another 
case,  as  in  that  of  the  shark  just  quoted)  is  here 
altogether  wrong,  and  that  these  Chrysanthella 
are  merely  meant  to  fill  up,  for  the  sake  of  logical 
perfection,  the  space  between  the  rooted  Polypes 
and  the  free  Echinoderms.  Be  this  as  it  may, 
there  is  another,  and  more  human,  source  of  in- 
terest about  this  quaint  animal  who  is  wriggling 
himself  clean  in  the  glass  jar  of  salt  water ;  for  he  is 
one  of  the  many  curiosities  which  have  been  added 
to  our  fauna  by  that  humble  hero  Mr.  Charles  Peach, 
the  self-taught  naturalist,  of  whom,  as  we  walk  on 
toward  the  rocks,  something  should  be  said,  or  rather 
read ;  for  Mr.  Chambers,  in  an  often-quoted  passage 


74  GLAUCUS 

from  his  "  Edinburgh  Journal ",  which  I  must  have 
the  pleasure  of  quoting  once  again,  has  told  the 
story  better  than  we  can  tell  it : 

"But  who  is  that  little  intelligent-looking  man 
in  a  faded  naval  uniform,  who  is  so  invariably  to  be 
seen  in  a  particular  central  seat  in  this  section? 
That,  gentle  reader,  is  perhaps  one  of  the  most  in- 
teresting men  who  attend  the  British  Association. 
He  is  only  a  private  in  the  mounted  guard  (preven- 
tive service)  at  an  obscure  part  of  the  Cornwall 
coast,  with  four  shillings  a-day,  and  a  wife  and  nine 
children,  most  of  whose  education  he  has  himself  to 
conduct.  He  never  tastes  the  luxuries  which  are 
so  common  in  the  middle  ranks  of  life,  and  even 
amongst  a  large  portion  of  the  working-classes. 
He  has  to  mend  with  his  own  hands  every  sort  of 
thing  that  can  break  or  wear  in  his  house.  Yet 
Mr.  Peach  is  a  votary  of  Natural  History ;  not  a 
student  of  the  science  in  books,  for  he  cannot  afford 
books;  but  an  investigator  by  sea  and  shore,  a 
collector  of  Zoophytes  and  Echinodermata — strange 
creatures,  many  of  which  are  as  yet  hardly  known 
to  man.  These  he  collects,  preserves,  and  describes  ; 
and  every  year  does  he  come  up  to  the  British 
Association  with  a  few  novelties  of  this  kind,  accom- 
panied by  illustrative  papers  and  drawings :  thus, 
under  circumstances  the  very  opposite  of  those  of 
such  men  as  Lord  Enniskillen,  adding,  in  like 
manner,  to  the  general  stock  of  knowledge.  On 
the  present  occasion  he  is  unusually  elated,  for  he 
has  made  the  discovery  of  a  Holothuria  with  twenty 
tentacula,  a  species  of  the  Echinodermata  which 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     75 

Professor  Forbes,  in  his  book  on  Star-Fishes,  has 
said  was  never  yet  observed  in  the  British  seas. 
It  may  be  of  small  moment  to  you,  who,  mayhap, 
know  nothing  of  Holothurias :  but  it  is  a  consi- 
derable thing  to  the  Fauna  of  Britain,  and  a  vast 
matter  to  a  poor  private  of  the  Cornwall  mounted 
guard.  And  accordingly  he  will  go  home  in  a  few 
days,  full  of  the  glory  of  his  exhibition,  and  strung 
anew  by  the  kind  notice  taken  of  him  by  the 
masters  of  the  science  to  similar  inquiries,  difficult 
as  it  may  be  to  prosecute  them,  under  such  a  compli- 
cation of  duties,  professional  and  domestic.  Honest 
Peach!  humble  as  is  thy  home,  and  simple  thy 
bearing,  thou  art  an  honour  even  to  this  assemblage 
of  nobles  and  doctors :  nay,  more,  when  we  con- 
sider everything,  thou  art  an  honour  to  human 
nature  itself ;  for  where  is  the  heroism  like  that  of 
virtuous,  intelligent,  independent  poverty  ?  And 
such  heroism  is  thine ! "  (Nov.  23,  1844). 

Mr.  Peach  is  now,  we  are  glad  to  say,  rewarded 
in  part  for  his  long  labours  in  the  cause  of  science, 
by  having  been  removed  to  a  more  lucrative  post  on 
the  north  coast  of  Scotland ;  the  earnest,  it  is  to  be 
hoped,  of  still  further  promotion. 

I  mentioned  just  now  Synapta;  or,  as  Montagu 
called  it,  Chirodota:  a  much  better  name,  and,  I 
think  very  uselessly  changed;  for  Chirodota  ex- 
presses the  peculiarity  of  the  beast,  which  consists 
in — start  not,  reader — twelve  hands,  like  human 
hands,  while  Synapta  expresses  merely  its  power  of 
clinging  to  the  fingers,  which  it  possesses  in  com- 
mon with  many  other  animals.  It  is,  at  least,  a 


76  GLAUCUS 

beast  worth  talking  about ;  as  for  finding  one,  I  fear 
that  we  have  no  chance  of  such  bliss. 

Colonel  Montagu  found  them  here  some  forty 
years  ago;  and  after  him,  Mr.  Alder,  in  1845.  I 
found  hundreds  of  them,  but  only  once,  in  1854 
after  a  heavy  south-eastern  gale,  washed  up  among 
the  great  Lutrarise  in  a  cove  near  Goodrington ;  but 
all  my  dredging  outside  failed  to  procure  a  specimen. 
Mr.  Alder,  however,  and  Mr.  Cocks  (who  find  every- 
thing, and  will  at  last  certainly  catch  Midgard, 
the  great  sea-serpent,  as  Thor  did,  by  baiting  for 
him  with  a  bull's  head)  have  dredged  them  in 
great  numbers ;  the  former,  at  Helford  in  Corn- 
wall, the  latter,  on  the  west  coast  of  Scotland.  It 
seems,  however,  to  be  a  southern  monster,  probably 
a  remnant,  like  the  great  cockle,  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean fauna ;  for  Mr.  MacAndrew  finds  them  plen- 
tifully in  Vigo  Bay,  and  J.  Muller  in  the  Adriatic 
off  Trieste. 

But  what  is  he  like  ?  Conceive  a  very  fat  short 
earth-worm;  not  ringed,  though,  like  the  earth-worm, 
but  smooth  and  glossy,  dappled  with  darker  spots, 
especially  on  one  side,  which  may  be  the  upper  one. 
Put  round  his  mouth  twelve  little  arms,  on  each  a 
hand  with  four  ragged  fingers,  and  on  the  back  of 
the  hand  a  stump  of  a  thumb,  and  you  have 
Synapta  digitata. 
These  hands  it  puts 
down  to  its  mouth, 
generally  in  alternate 

Pairs  ;  but  how  tt ob- 

(in  health,  and  unwell).  tains  its  food  by  them 


THE   WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE      77 

is  as  yet  a  mystery,  for  its  intestines  are  filled,  like 
an  earth-worm's,  with  the  mud  in  which  it  lives, 
and  from  which  it  probably  extracts  (as  does  the 
earth-worm)  all  organic  matters. 

You  will  find  it  stick  to  your  fingers  by  the  whole 
skin,  causing,  if  your  hand  be  delicate,  a  tingling 
sensation ;  and  if  you  examine  the  skin  under  the 
microscope,  you  will  find  the  cause.  The  whole  skin 
is  studded  with  minute  glass  anchors,  some  hanging 
freely  from  the  surface,  but  most  imbedded  in  the 
skin.  Each  of  these  anchors  is  jointed  at  its  root 
into  one  end  of  a  curious  cribriform  plate, — in  plain 
English,  one  pierced  like  a  sieve, — which  lies  under 
the  skin,  and  reminds  one  of  the  similar  plates  in 
the  skin  of  the  White  Cucumaria,  which  I  will 
show  you  presently ;  and  both  of  these  we  must 
regard  as  the  first  rudiments  of  an  Echinoderm's 
outside  skeleton,  such  as  in  the  Sea-urchins  covers 
the  whole  body  of  the  animal  (see  on  Echinus 
miliaris,  p.  89.)  Somewhat  similar  anchor-plates, 
from  a  Red  Sea  species,  Synapta  vittata,  may  be 
seen  in  any  collection  of  microscopic  objects. 

The  animal,  when  caught,  has  a  strange  habit  of 
self-destruction,  contracting  its  skin  at  two  or  three 
different  points,  and  writhing  till  it  snaps  itself  into 
'junks',  as  the  sailors  would  say,  and  then  dies.  My 
specimens,  on  breaking  up,  threw  out  from  the 
wounded  part  long  "ovarian  filaments"  (whatsoever 
those  may  be),  similar  to  those  thrown  out  by  many 
of  the  Sagartian  anemones,  especially  Sagartia 
parasitica.  Beyond  this,  I  can  tell  you  nothing 
about  Synapta,  and  only  ask  you  to  consider  its 


78 


GLAUCUS 


hands,  as  an  instance  of  that  fantastic  play  of 
Nature  which  repeats,  in  families  widely  different, 
organs  of  similar  form,  though  perhaps  of  by  no 
means  similar  use ;  nay,  sometimes  (as  in  those 
beautiful  clear-wing  hawk-moths  which  you,  as  they 
hover  round  the  rhododendrons,  mistake  for  bumble- 
bees) repeats  the  outward  form  of  a  whole  animal, 
for  no  conceivable  reason  save  her — shall  we  not 
say  honestly  His  ? — own  good  pleasure. 

But  here  we  are  at  the  old  bank  of  boulders,  the 
ruins  of  an  antique  pier  which  the  monks  of  Tor 
Abbey  built  for  their  convenience,  while  Torquay 
was  but  a  knot  of  fishing  huts  within  a  lonely  lime- 
stone cove.  To  get  to  it,  though,  we  have  passed 
many  a  hidden  treasure;  for  every  ledge  of  these 
flat  New  Eed  Sandstone  rocks,  if  torn  up  with  the 
crowbar,  discloses  in  its  cracks  and  crannies  nests 
of  strange  forms  which  shun  the  light  of  day ; 
beautiful  Actiniae  fill  the  tiny  caverns  with  living 
flowers;  great  Pholades  bore  by 
hundreds  in  the  softer  strata ;  and 
wherever  a  thin  layer  of  muddy 
sand  intervenes  between  two  slabs, 
long  Annelid  worms  of  quaintest 
forms  and  colours  have  their  hori- 
zontal burrows,  among  those  of 
that  curious  and  rare  radiate  ani- 
mal, the  Spoonworm  (Thalassema 
neptuni),  and  the  eyeless  bag 
about  an  inch  long,  half  bluish 
grey,  half  pink,  with  a  strange 
Phoks  dactylus.  scalloped  and  wrinkled  proboscis 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     79 

of  saffron  colour,  which  serves,  in  some  mysterious 
way,  soft  as  it  is,  to  collect  food,  and  clear  its  dark 
passage  through  the  rock. 

See,  at  the  extreme  low-water  mark,  where  the 
broad  olive  fronds  of  the  LaminaricB,  like  fan-palms, 
droop  and  wave  gracefully  in  the  retiring  ripples, 
a  great  boulder  which  will  serve  our  purpose.  Its 
upper  side  is  a  whole  forest  of  sea-weeds,  large  and 
small :  and  that  forest,  if  you  examined  it  closely, 
as  full  of  inhabitants  as  those  of  the  Amazon  or  the 
Gambia.  To  'beat'  that  dense  cover  would  be  an 
endless  task ;  but  on  the  under  side,  where  no  sea- 
weeds grow,  we  shall  find  full  in  view  enough  to 
occupy  us  till  the  tide  returns.  For  the  slab,  see,  is 
such  a  one  as  sea-beasts  love  to  haunt.  Its  weed- 
covered  surface  shows  that  the  surge  has  not  shifted 
it  for  years  past.  It  lies  on  other  boulders  clear  of 
sand  and  mud,  so  that  there  is  no  fear  of  dead  sea- 
weed having  lodged  and  decayed  under  it,  destruc- 
tive to  animal  life.  We  can  see  dark  crannies 
and  caves  beneath;  yet  too  narrow  to  allow  the 
surge  to  wash  in,  and  keep  the  surface  clean.  It 
will  be  a  fine  menagerie  of  Nereus,  if  we  can  but 
turn  it. 

Now,  the  crowbar  is  well  under  it;  heave,  and 
with  a  will;  and  so,  after  five  minutes'  tugging, 
propping,  slipping,  and  splashing,  the  boulder  gradu- 
ally tips  over,  and  we  rush  greedily  upon  the  spoil. 

A  muddy  dripping  surface  it  is,  truly,  full  of 
cracks  and  hollows,  uninviting  enough  at  first  sight: 
let  us  look  it  round  leisurely,  to  see  if  there  are  not 
materials  enough  there  for  an  hour's  lecture. 


80  GLAUCUS 

The  first  object  which  strikes  the  eye  is  probably 
a  group  of  milk-white  slugs,  from  two  to  six  inches 
long,  cuddling  snugly  together.  You  try  to  pull 
them  off,  and  find  that  they  give  you  some  trouble, 
such  a  firm  hold  have  the  delicate  white  sucking 
arms,  which  fringe  each  of  their  five  edges.  You 
see  at  the  head  nothing  but  a  yellow  dimple ;  for 
eating  and  breathing  are  suspended  till  the  return 
of  tide;  but  once  settled  in  a  jar  of  salt-water, 
each  will  protrude  a  large  chocolate-coloured  head, 
tipped  with  a  ring  of  ten  feathery  gills,  looking 
very  much  like  a  head  of  '  curled  kale ',  but  of  the 
loveliest  white  and  primrose ;  in  the  centre  whereof 
lies  perdu  a  mouth  with  sturdy  teeth — if  indeed 
they,  as  well  as  the  whole  inside  of  the  beast,  have 
not  been  lately  got  rid  of,  and  what  you  see  be  not 
a  mere  bag,  without  intestine  or  other  organ :  but 
only  for  the  time  being.  For  hear  it,  worn-out 
epicures,  and  old  Indians  who  bemoan  your  livers, 
this  little  Holothuria  knows  a  secret  which,  if  he 
could  tell  it,  you  would  be  glad  to  buy  of  him  for 
thousands  sterling.  To  him  blue  pill  and  muriatic 
acid  are  superfluous,  and  travels  to  German  Brun- 
nen  a  waste  of  time.  Happy  Holothuria!  who 
possesses  really  the  secret  of  everlasting  youth, 
which  ancient  fable  bestowed  on  the  serpent  and 
the  eagle.  For  when  his  teeth  ache,  or  his  digestive 
organs  trouble  him,  all  he  has  to  do  is  just  to  cast 
up  forthwith  his  entire  inside,  and  faisant  maigre 
for  a  month  or  so,  grow  a  fresh  set,  and  then  eat 
away  as  merrily  as  ever.  His  name,  if  you  wish  to 
consult  so  triumphant  a  hygeist,  is  Cucumaria 


THE   WONDERS   OF   THE   SEA-SHORE      81 


Hyndmanni,  or  Pentactes — I  say  the  former,  and 
care  little  which :  but  he  has  many  a  stout  cousin 
round  the  Scotch  coast,  who  knows  the  antibilious 
panacea  as  well  as  he,  and  submits,  among  the 


Cucumaria  Pentactes  (Ai)gular  sea-cucumber). 

nothern  fishermen,  to  the  rather  rude  and  un- 
deserved name  of  sea-puddings ;  one  of  which 
grows  in  Shetland  to  the  enormous  length  of  three 
feet,  rivalling  there  his  huge  congeners,  who  display 
their  exquisite  plumes  on  every  tropic  coral  reef. 

Next,  what  are  those  bright 
little  buds,  like  salmon-coloured 
Banksia  roses  half  expanded,  sit- 
ting closely  on  the  stone  ?  Touch 
them ;  the  soft  part  is  retracted, 
and  the  orange  flower  of  flesh  is 
transformed  into  a  pale  pink  flower 
of  stone.  That  is  the  Madrepore 
o 


82  GLAUCUS 

Caryophyllia  Smithii ;  one  of  our  south  coast  rari- 
ties ;  and  see,  on  the  lip  of  the  last  one,  which 
we  have  carefully  scooped  off  with  the  chisel, 
two  little  pink  towers  of  stone,  delicately  striated ; 
drop  them  into  this  small  bottle  of  sea -water, 
and  from  the  top  of  each  tower  issues  every  half- 
second — what  shall  we  call  it? — a  hand  or  a  net 
of  finest  hairs,  clutching  at  something  invisible  to 
our  grosser  sense.  That  is  the  Pyrgoma,  parasitic 
only  (as  far  as  we  know)  on  the  lip  of  this  same 
rare  Madrepore ;  a  little  '  cirrhipod ',  the  cousin  of 
those  tiny  barnacles  which  roughen  every  rock  (a 
larger  sort  whereof  I  showed  you  on  the  Turritella), 
and  of  those  still  larger  ones  also  who  burrow  in 
the  thick  hide  of  the  whale,  and,  borne  about  upon 
his  mighty  sides,  throw  out  their  tiny  casting  nets, 
as  this  Pyrgoma  does  to  catch  every  passing  animal- 
cule, and  sweep  them  into  the  jaws  concealed  within 
its  shell.  And  this  creature,  rooted  to  one  spot 
through  life  and  death,  was  in  its  infancy  a  free 
swimming  animal,  hovering  from  place  to  place 
upon  delicate  ciliee,  till,  having  sown  its  wild  oats, 
it  settled  down  in  life,  built  itself  a  good  stone 
house,  and  became  a  landowner,  or  rather  a  glebae 
adscriptus,  for  ever  and  a  day.  Mysterious  destiny ! 
— yet  not  so  mysterious  as  that  of  the  free  medusoid 
young  of  every  polype  and  coral,  which  ends  as  a 
rooted  tree  of  horn  or  stone,  and  seems  to  the  eye 
of  sensuous  fancy  to  have  literally  degenerated  into 
a  vegetable.  Of  them  you  must  read  for  yourselves 
in  Mr.  Gosse's  book;  in  the  meanwhile  he  shall 
tell  you  something  of  the  beautiful  Madrepores 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE     83 

themselves.  His  description,  by  far  the  best  yet 
published,  should  be  read  in  full ;  we  must  content 
ourselves  with  extracts. 

"Doubtless  you  are  familiar  with  the  stony 
skeleton  of  our  Madrepore,  as  it  appears  in  museums. 
It  consists  of  a  number  of  thin  calcareous  plates 
standing  up  edgewise,  and  arranged  in  a  radiating 
manner  round  a  low  centre.  A  little  below  the 
margin,  their  individuality  is  lost  in  the  deposition 
of  rough  calcareous  matter.  .  .  .  The  general  form 
is  more  or  less  cylindrical,  commonly  wider  at 
the  top  than  just  above  the  bottom.  .  .  .  This  is 
but  .the  skeleton;  and  though  it  is  a  very  pretty 
object,  those  who  are  acquainted  with  it  alone,  can 
form  but  a  very  poor  idea  of  the  beauty  of  the  living 
animal.  .  .  .  Let  it,  after  being  torn  from  the  rock, 
recover  its  equanimity ;  then  you  will  see  a  pellucid 
gelatinous  flesh  emerging  from  between  the  plates, 
and  little  exquisitely  formed  and  coloured  ten- 
tacula,  with  white  clubbed  tips  fringing  the  sides 
of  the  cup-shaped  cavity  in  the  centre,  across  which 
stretches  the  oval  disc  marked  with  a  star  of  some 
rich  and  brilliant  colour,  surrounding  the  central 
mouth,  a  slit  with  white  crenated  lips,  like  the 
orifice  of  one  of  those  elegant  cowry  shells  which 
we  put  upon  our  mantlepieces.  The  mouth  is 
always  more  or  less  prominent,  and  can  be  pro- 
truded and  expanded  to  an  astonishing  extent. 
The  space  surrounding  the  lips  is  commonly  fawn 
colour,  or  rich  chestnut-brown ;  the  star  or  van- 
dyked  circle  rich  red,  pale  vermilion,  and  sometimes 
the  most  brilliant  emerald  green,  as  brilliant  as  the 


84  GLAUCUS 

gorget  of  a  humming-bird" — Naturalist's  Rambles 
on  the  Devonshire  Coast,  p.  110. 

And  what  does  this  exquisitely  delicate  creature 
do  with  its  pretty  mouth  ?  Alas  for  fact !  It  sips 
no  honey- dew,  or  fruits  from  paradise. — "  I  put  a 
minute  spider,  as  large  as  a  pin's  head,  into  the 
water,  pushing  it  down  to  the  coral.  The  instant  it 
touched  the  tip  of  a  tentacle,  it  adhered,  and  was 
drawn  in  with  the  surrounding  tentacles  between 
the  plates.  With  a  lens  I  saw  the  small  mouth 
slowly  open,  and  move  over  to  that  side,  the  lips 
gaping  unsymmetrically,  while  with  a  movement  as 
imperceptible  as  that  of  the  hour  hand  of  a  watch, 
the  tiny  prey  was  carried  along  between  the  plates 
to  the  corner  of  the  mouth.  The  mouth,  however, 
moved  most,  and  at  length  reached  the  edges  of  the 
plates,  gradually  closed  upon  the  insect,  and  then 
returned  to  its  usual  place  in  the  centre  ". 

Mr.  Gosse  next  tried  the  fairy  of  the  walking 
mouth  with  a  house-fly,  who  escaped  only  by  hard 
fighting;  and  at  last  the  gentle  creature,  after 
swallowing  and  disgorging  various  large  pieces  of 
shell-fish,  found  viands  to  its  taste  in  "  the  lean  of 
cooked  meat,  and  portions  of  earthworms",  filling 
up  the  intervals  by  a  perpetual  dessert  of  micro- 
scopic animalcules,  whirled  into  that  lovely  avernus, 
its  mouth,  by  the  currents  of  the  delicate  cilise 
which  clothe  every  tentacle.  The  fact  is,  that  the 
Madrepore,  like  those  glorious  sea-anemones  whose 
living  flowers  stud  every  pool,  is  by  profession  a 
scavenger,  and  a  feeder  on  carrion ;  and  being  as 
useful  as  he  is  beautiful;  really  comes  under  the 


» 

THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     85 

rule  which  he  seems  at  first  to  break,  that  handsome 
is  who  handsome  does. 

Another  species  of  Madrepore  (Balanophyllia 
regia)  was  discovered  on  our  Devon  coast  by 
Mr.  G-osse,  more  gaudy,  though  not  so  delicate  in 
hue  as  our  Caryophyllia ;  three  of  which  are  at  this 
moment  pouting  out  their  conical  orange  mouths 
and  pointed  golden  tentacles  in  a  vase  on  my 
table,  entreating  for  something  to  eat.  Mr.  Gosse's 
locality,  for  this  and  numberless  other  curiosities, 
is  Ilfracombe,  on  the  north  coast  of  Devon.  These 
last  specimens  came  from  Lundy  Island,  in  the 
mouth  of  the  Bristol  Channel,  or  more  properly 
from  that  curious  "  Eat  Island  "  to  the  south  of  it, 
where  still  lingers  the  black  long-tailed  English  rat, 
exterminated  everywhere  else  by  his  sturdier  brown 
cousin  of  the  Hanoverian  dynasty. 

Look,  now,  at  these  tiny  saucers  of  the  thinnest 
ivory,  the  largest  not  bigger  than  a  silver  three- 


Tubulipora  patina. 
(1)  Natural  size  ;  (2)  same  magnified  ;  (3)  more  highly  magnified. 

pence,  which  contain  in  their  centres  a  milk-white 
crust    of    stone,    pierced,    as    you    see    under    the 


86 


GLAUCUS 


magnifier,  into  a  thousand  cells,  each  with  its  living 
architect  within.  Here  are  two  sorts:  in  one  the 

tubular  cells  radiate 
from  the  centre,  giv- 
ing it  the  appearance 
of  a  tiny  compound 
flower,  daisy  or 
groundsel ;  in  the 
other  they  are 
crossed  with  waving 
grooves,  giving  the 
Tubulipora  hispida.  whole  a  peculiar 

(1,2)  Natural  size;  (3)  same  magnified.    fretted      jook>      eyen 

more  beautiful  than  that  of  the  former  species. 
They  are  Tubulipora  patina  and  Tubulipora  hispida ; 
— and  stay — break  off  that  tiny  rough  red  wart, 

ii 


Cellepora  pumicosa. 
(1,  2)  Natural  size  ;  (3)  small  specimen  magnified. 

and  look  at  its  cells  also  under  the  magnifier :  it 
is  Cellepora  pumicosa ;  and  now,  with  the  Madre- 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE     87 

pore,  you  hold  in  your  hand  the  principal,  at  least 
the  commonest,  British  types  of  those  famed  coral 
insects,  which  in  the  tropics  are  the  architects  of 
continents,  and  the  conquerors  of  the  ocean  surge. 
All  the  world,  since  the  publication  of  Darwin's 
delightful  "Voyage  of  the  Beagle",  and  of  Williams  s 
"  Missionary  Enterprises  ",  knows,  or  ought  to  know, 
enough  about  them :  for  those  who  do  not,  there  are 
a  few  pages  in  the  beginning  of  Dr.  Landsborough's 
"  British  Zoophytes  ",  well  worth  perusal. 

There  are  a  few  other  true  cellepole  corals  round 
the  coast.     The  largest  of  all,  Cervicornis,  may  be 


Cellepora  cervicornis. 

dredged  a  few  miles  outside  on  the  Exmouth  bank, 
with  a  few  more  Tubulipores :  but  all  tiny  things, 
the  lingering,  and,  as  it  were,  expiring  remnants  of 
that  great  coral-world,  which,  through  the  abysmal 
depths  of  past  ages,  formed  here  in  Britain  our 
limestone  hills,  storing  up  for  generations  yet 


88  GLAUCUS 

unborn  the  materials  of  agriculture  and  architecture. 

Inexpressibly  interesting,  even  solemn,  to  those  who 

will  think,  is  the  sight  of  those  puny  parasites, 

which,  as  it  were,  connect  the  ages  and  the  zones  : 

yet  not  so   solemn  and  full  of   meaning   as   that 

tiny  relic  of  an  older  world,  the  little  pear-shaped 

—  ^       Turbinolia  (cousin  of  the  Madrepores  and 

!      :*       Sea-anemones),  found  fossil  in  the  Suffolk 

^       Crag,  and  yet  still  lingering  here  and  there 

alive  in  the  deep  water  of  Scilly  and  the 

west  coast  of  Ireland,  possessor  of  a  pedi- 

fgree  with  dates,  perhaps,  from  ages  before 
the  day  in  which  it  was  said  "  Let  us  make 
man  in  our  image,  after   our   likeness". 
Turbinolia  To  think  that  the  whole  human  race,  its 
milletiana.  n(j  ^g  sorrowgj  jtg  virtues  and  its 


sins,  its  aspirations  and  its  failures,  has  been  rush- 
ing out  of  eternity  and  into  eternity  again,  as 
Arjoon  in  the  "Bhagavad  Gita"  beheld  the  race 
of  men,  issuing  from  Krishna's  flaming  mouth,  and 
swallowed  up  in  it  again,  "  as  the  crowds  of  insects 
swarm  into  the  flame,  as  the  homeless  streams  leap 
down  into  the  ocean  bed  ",  in  an  everlasting  heart- 
pulse  whose  blood  is  living  souls  —  and  all  that 
while,  and  ages  before  that  mystery  began,  that 
humble  coral,  unnoticed  on  the  dark  sea-floor,  has 
been  "continuing  as  it  was  at  the  beginning",  and 
fulfilling  "  the  law  which  cannot  be  broken  ",  while 
races  and  dynasties  and  generations  have  been 

"  Playing  such  fantastic  tricks  before  high  heaven, 
As  make  the  angels  weep  ". 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE     89 


Yes ;  it  is  this  vision  of  the  awful  permanence  and 
perfection  of  the  natural  world,  beside  the  wild 
flux  and  confusion,  the  mad  struggles,  the  despair- 
ing cries  of  that  world  of  spirits  which  man  has 
denied  by  sin,  which  would  at  moments  crush  the 
naturalist's  heart,  and  make  his  brain  swim  with 
terror,  were  it  not  that  he  can  see  by  faith,  through 
all  the  abysses  and  the  ages,  not  merely 

"  Hands, 
From  out  the  darkness,  shaping  man  "  ; 

but  above  them  a  living  loving  countenance,  human 
and  yet  divine ;  and  can  hear  a  voice  which  said  at 
first  "Let  us  make  man  in  our  image";  and  hath 
said  since  then,  and  says  for  ever  and  for  ever, 
"  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even  to  the  end  of  the 
world  ". 

But  now,  friend,  who  listenest,  perhaps  instructed, 
and  at  least  amused,  if,  as  Professor  Harvey  well  says, 
the  simpler  animals  re- 
present, as  in  a  glass, 
the  scattered  organs  of 
the  higher  races,  which 
of  your  organs  is  repre- 
sented by  that  '  sca'd 
man's  head ',  which  the 
Devon  children  more 
gracefully,  yet  with  less 
adherence  to  plain  like- 
ness., call  '  mermaid's 
head'  (Amphidotus  cor- 
datus,  see  p.  62),  which  Echinug  mi]iaria 

We  picked  up  just  HOW  (Purple- tipped  Egg-urchin). 


90  GLAUCUS 

on  Paignton  sands  ?  Or  which,  again,  by  its  more 
beautiful  little  congener  (Echinus  miliaris),  five  or 
six  of  which  are  adhering  tightly  to  the  slab 
before  us,  a  ball  covered  with  delicate  spines  of 
lilac  and  green,  and  stuck  over  (cunning  fellows !) 
with  strips  of  dead  sea-weed  to  serve  as  impro- 
vised parasols?  One  cannot  say  that  in  him  we 
have  the  first  type  of  the  human  skull ;  for  the 
resemblance,  quaint  as  it  is,  is  only  sensuous  and 
accidental,  (in  the  logical  use  of  that  term,)  and  not 
homological,  i.e.  a  lower  manifestation  of  the  same 
idea.  Yet  how  is  one  tempted  to  say,  that  this  was 
Nature's  first  and  lowest  attempt  at  that  use  of 
hollow  globes  of  mineral  for  protecting  soft  fleshy 
parts,  which  she  afterwards  developed  to  such  per- 
fection in  the  skulls  of  vertebrate  animals !  But 
even  that  conceit,  pretty  as  it  sounds,  will  not  hold 
good;  for  though  Eadiates  similar  to  these  were 
among  the  earliest  tenants  of  the  abyss,  yet  as 
early  as  their  time,  perhaps  even  before  them,  had 
been  conceived  and  actualised,  in  the  sharks,  and  in 
Hugh  Miller's  pets  the  Old  Eed  Sandstone  fishes, 
that  very  true  vertebrate  skull  and  brain,  of  which 
this  is  a  mere  mockery.  Here  the  whole  animal, 
with  his  extraordinary  feeding  mill,  (for  neither 
teeth  nor  jaws  is  a  fit  word  for  it,)  is  inclosed 
within  an  ever-growing  limestone  castle,  to  the 
architecture  of  which  the  Eddystone  and  the  Crystal 
Palace  are  bungling  heaps;  without  arms  or  legs, 
eyes  or  ears,  and  yet  capable,  in  spite  of  his 
perpetual  imprisonment,  of  walking,  feeding,  and 
breeding,  doubt  it  not,  merrily  enough.  But  this 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE     91 

result  has  been  attained  at  the  expense  of  a  com- 
plication of  structure,  which  has  baffled  all  human 
analysis  and  research  into  final  causes.  As  much 
concerning  this  most  miraculous  of  families  as  is 
needful  to  be  known,  and  ten  times  more  than  is 
comprehended,  may  be  read  in  Professor  Harvey's 
"  Sea-Side  Book "  (pp.  142-148),  pages  from  which 
you  will  probably  arise  with  a  dizzy  sense  of  the 
infinity  of  nature,  and  a  conviction  that  the  Crea- 
tive Word,  so  far  from  having  commenced,  as  some 
fancy,  with  the  simplest,  and,  as  it  were,  easiest 
forms  of  life,  took  delight,  if  I  may  so  speak,  in 
solving  the  most  difficult  and  complicated  problems 
first  of  all,  with  a  certain  divine  prodigality  of  wis- 
dom and  of  power ;  and  that  before  the  mountains 
were  brought  forth,  or  ever  the  earth  and  the  world 
was  made,  He  was  God  from  everlasting,  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever.  Conceive  a  Crystal 
Palace  (for  mere  difference  in  size,  as  both  the  natu- 
ralist and  the  metaphysician  know,  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  wonder),  whereof  each  separate  joist, 
girder,  and  pane  grows  continually  without  altering 
the  shape  of  the  whole;  and  you  have  conceived 
only  one  of  the  miracles  embodied  in  that  little 
sea-egg,  which  the  Divine  Word  has,  as  it  were,  to 
justify  to  man  His  own  immutability,  furnished 
with  a  shell  capable  of  enduring  fossil  for  countless 
ages,  that  we  may  confess  Him  to  have  been  as 
great  when  first  His  Spirit  brooded  on  the  deep, 
as  He  is  now,  and  will  be  through  all  worlds  to 
come. 

But  we  must  make  haste ;  for  the  tide  is  rising 


92  GLAUCUS 

fast,  and  our  stone  will  be  restored  to  its  eleven 
hours'  bath,  long  before  we  have  talked  over  half 
the  wonders  which  it  holds.  Look  though,  ere  you 
retreat,  at  one  or  two  more. 

What  is  that  little  brown  fellow  whom  you  have 
just  taken  off  the  rock  to  which  he  adhered  so 
stoutly  by  his  sucking-foot  ?  A  limpet  ?  Not  at 
all :  he  is  of  quite  a  different  family  and  structure ; 
but,  on  the  whole,  a  limpet-like  shell  would  suit 
him  well  enough,  so  he  had  one  given  him :  never- 
theless, owing  to  certain  anatomical  peculiarities,  he 
needed  one  aperture  more  than  a  limpet ;  so  one,  if 
you  will  examine,  has  been  given  him  at  the  top 
of  his  shell  (Fissurella  grseca). 
This  is  one  instance  among  a 
thousand  of  the  way  in  which 
a  scientific  knowledge  of  ob- 
jects must  not  obey,  but  run 
counter  to,  the  impressions  of 
sense;  and  of  a  custom  in 

Fissurella  grseca. 

nature  which  makes  this  cau- 
tion so  necessary,  namely,  the  repetition  of  the 
same  form,  slightly  modified,  in  totally  different 
animals,  sometimes  as  if  to  avoid  waste,  (for  why 
should  not  the  same  conception  be  used  in  two 
different  cases,  if  it  will  suit  in  both  ?)  and  some- 
times (more  marvellous  by  far),  when  an  organ 
fully  developed  and  useful  in  one  species,  appears 
in  a  cognate  species  but  feeble,  useless,  and,  as  it 
were,  abortive;  and  gradually,  in  species  still  far- 
ther removed,  dies  out  altogether ;  placed  there,  it 
would  seem,  at  first  sight,  merely  to  keep  up  the 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE   SEA-SHORE     93 


family  likeness.  I  am  half  jesting ;  that  cannot 
be  the  only  reason,  perhaps  not  the  reason  ac  all ; 
but  the  fact  is  one  of  the  most  curious,  and  notori- 
ous also,  in  comparative  anatomy. 

Look,  again,  at  those  sea-slugs.  One,  some  three 
inches  long,  of  a  bright  lemon-yellow,  clouded  with 
purple;  another  of 
a  dingy  grey  (Doris 
tuberculata,  and  bi- 
lineata) ;  another 
exquisite  little  crea- 
ture of  a  pearly 
French  white  (Eolis 
papillosa)  furred  all 
over  the  back  with 
what  seem  arms, 

but  are  really  gills,  of  ringed  white  and  grey  and 
black.  Put  that  yellow  one  into  water,  and  from 
his  head,  above  the  eyes,  arise  two  serrated  horns, 
while  from  the  after-part  of  his  back  springs  a 
circular  Prince-of-Wales'-feather  of  gills,— they  are 


Doris. 


Eolis  papillosa. 

almost  exactly  like  those  which  we  saw  just  now 
in  the  white  Cucumaria.  Yes;  here  is  another 
instance  of  the  same  custom  of  repetition.  The 
Cucumaria  is  a  low  radiate  animal — the  sea-slug  a 


94  GLAUCUS 

far  higher  mollusc;  and  every  organ  within  him 
is  formed  on  a  different  type;  as  indeed  are  those 
seemingly  identical  gills,  if  you  come  to  examine 
them  under  the  microscope,  having  to  oxygenate 
fluids  of  a  very  different  and  more  complicated 


Cucumaria  communis  (Common  Sea-cucumber). 

kind;  and,  moreover,  the  Cucumaria's  gills  were 
put  round  his  mouth;  the  Doris's  feathers  round 
the  other  extremity;  that  grey 
Eolis's,  again,  are  simple  clubs, 
scattered  over  his  whole  back,  and 
in  each  of  his  nudibranch  con- 
geners these  same  gills  take  some 
new  and  fantastic  form ;  in  Meli- 
beea  those  clubs  are  covered  with 
warts;  in  Scyllgea,  with  tufted 
bouquets;  in  the  beautiful  Antiopa 
they  are  transparent  bags ;  and  in 
many  other  English  species  they 
take  every  conceivable  form  of  Cucu^ada  Planci, 

leaf,  tree,  flower,  and  branch  be-      with  tentacles  ex- 
panded. 


THE   WONDERS    OF   THE   SEA-SHORE      95 

decked  with  every  colour  of  the  rainbow,  as  you 
may  see  them  depicted  in  Messrs.  Alder  and  Han- 
cock's unrivalled  "Monograph  on  the  Nudibranch 
Mollusca  ". 

And,  now,  worshipper  of  final  causes  and  the 
mere  useful  in  nature,  answer  but  one  question, 
Why  this  prodigal  variety  ?  All  these  Nudibranchs 
live  in  much  the  same  way :  why  would  not  the 
same  mould  have  done  for  them  all  ?  And  why, 
again,  (for  we  must  push  the  argument  a  little 
further,)  why  have  not  all  the  butterflies,  at  least 
all  who  feed  on  the  same  plant,  the  same  markings? 
Of  all  unfathomable  triumphs  of  design,  (we  can 
only  express  ourselves  thus,  for  honest  induction,  as 
Paley  so  well  teaches,  allows  us  to  ascribe  such 
results  only  to  the  design  of  some  personal  will  and 
mind,)  what  surpasses  that  by  which  the  scales  on  a 
butterfly's  wing  are  arranged  to  produce  a  certain 
pattern  of  artistic  beauty  beyond  all  painter's  skill  ? 
What  a  waste  of  power,  on  any  utilitarian  theory 
of  nature !  And  once  more,  why  are  those  strange 
microscopic  atomies,  the  Diatomaceae  and  Infusoria, 
which  fill  every  stagnant  pool, 
which  fringe  every  branch  of 
seed-weed,  which  form  banks 
hundreds  of  miles  long  on  the 
Arctic  sea-floor,  and  the  strata 
of  whole  moorlands,  which  per- 
vade in  millions  the  mass  of 
every  iceberg,  and  float  aloft  in 
countless  swarms  amid  the  clouds 
of  the  volcanic  dust — why  are 


96  GLAUCUS 

their  tiny  shells  of  flint  as  fantastically  various  in 
their  quaint  mathematical  symmetry,  as  they  are 
countless  beyond  the  wildest  dreams  of  the  Poet  ? 
Mystery  inexplicable  on  all  theories  of  evolution 
by  necessary  laws,  as  well  as  on  the  conceited  notion 
which,  making  man  forsooth  the '  centre  of  the  uni- 
verse, dares  to  believe  that  this  variety  of  forms 
has  existed  for  countless  ages  in  abysmal  sea-depths 
and  untrodden  forests,  only  that  some  few  indi- 
viduals of  the  western  races  might,  in  these  latter 
days,  at  last  discover  and  admire  a  corner  here  and 
there  of  the  boundless  realms  of  beauty.  Inex- 
plicable, truly,  if  man  be  the  centre  and  the  object 
of  their  existence;  explicable  enough  to  him  who 
believes  that  God  has  created  all  things  for  Himself, 
and  rejoices  in  His  own  handiwork,  and  that  the 
material  universe  is,  as  the  wise  man  says  "  A  plat- 
form whereon  His  eternal  Spirit  sports  and  makes 
melody  ".  Of  all  the  blessings  which  the  study  of 
nature  brings  to  the  patient  observer,  let  none, 
perhaps,  be  classed  higher  than  this,  that  the  further 
he  enters  into  those  fairy  gardens  of  life  and  birth, 
which  Spenser  saw  and  described  in  his  great  poem, 
the  more  he  learns  the  awful  and  yet  most  comfort- 
able truth,  that  they  do  not  belong  to  him,  but  to 
one  greater,  wiser,  lovelier  than  he ;  and  as  he 
stands,  silent  with  awe,  amid  the  pomp  of  nature's 
ever-busy  rest,  hears,  as  of  old,  "  The  Word  of  the 
Lord  God  walking  among  the  trees  of  the  garden 
in  the  cool  of  the  day  ". 

One  sight  more,  and  we  have  done.     I  had  some- 
thing to  say,  had  time  permitted,  on  the  ludicrous 


THE   WONDERS   OF   THE   SEA-SHORE      97 

element  which  appears  here  and  there  in  nature. 
There  are  animals,  like  monkeys  and  crabs,  which 
seem  made  to  be  laughed  at ;  by  those  at  least 
who  possess  that  most  indefinable  of  faculties,  the 
sense  of  the  ridiculous.  As  long  as  man  possesses 
muscles  especially  formed  to  enable  him  to  laugh, 
we  have  no  right  to  suppose  (with  some)  that 
laughter  is  an  accident  of  our  fallen  nature ;  or  to 
find  (with  others)  the  primary  cause  of  the  ridiculous 
in  the  perception  of  unfitness  or  disharmony.  And 
yet  we  shrink  (whether  rightly  or  wrongly,  we  can 
hardly  tell)  from  attributing  a  sense  of  the  ludicrous 
to  the  Creator  of  these  forms.  It  may  be  a  weak- 
ness on  my  part ;  at  least  I  will  hope  it  is  a  reverent 
one:  but  till  we  can  find  something  corresponding 
to  what  we  conceive  of  the  Divine  Mind  in  any 
class  of  phaenomena,  it  is  perhaps  better  not  to  talk 
about  them  at  all,  but  observe  a  stoic  '  epoche ', 
waiting  for  more  light,  and  yet  confessing  that  our 
own  laughter  is  uncontrollable,  and  therefore  we 
hope  not  unworthy  of  us,  at  many  a  strange  crea- 
ture and  strange  doing  which  we  meet,  from  the 
highest  ape  to  the  lowest  polype. 

But,  in  the  meanwhile,  there  are  animals  in  which 
results  so  strange,  fantastic,  even  seemingly  horrible, 
are  produced,  that  fallen  man  may  be  pardoned,  if 
he  shrinks  from  them  in  disgust.  That,  at  least, 
must  be  a  consequence  of  our  own  wrong  state ;  for 
everything  is  beautiful  and  perfect  in  its  place.  It 
may  be  answered,  '  Yes,  in  its  place ;  but  its  place 
is  not  yours.  You  had  no  business  to  look  at  it,  and 
must  pay  the  penalty  for  intermeddling '.  I  doubt 
H 


98  GLAUCUS 

that  answer ;  for  surely,  if  man  have  liberty  to  do 
anything,  he  has  liberty  to  search  out  freely  his 
heavenly  Father's  works ;  and  yet  every  one  seems 
to  have  his  antipathic  animal ;  and  I  know  one 
bred  from  his  childhood  to  zoology  by  land  and  sea, 
and  bold  in  asserting,  and  honest  in  feeling,  that  all 
without  exception  is  beautiful,  who  yet  cannot,  after 
handling  and  petting  and  admiring  all  day  long 
every  uncouth  and  venomous  beast,  avoid  a  paroxysm 
of  horror  at  the  sight  of  the  common  house-spider. 
At  all  events,  whether  we  were  intruding  or  not,  in 
turning  this  stone,  we  must  pay  a  fine  for  having 
done  so ;  for  there  lies  an  animal  as  foul  and 
monstrous  to  the  eye  as  "  hydra,  gorgon,  or  chimaera 
dire  ",  and  yet  so  wondrously  fitted  to  its  work,  that 
we  must  needs  endure  for  our  own  instruction  to 
handle  and  to  look  at  it.  Its  name,  if  you  wish  for 
it,  is  Nemertes — probably  N.  Borlassii — a  worm  of 
very  '  low '  organisation,  though  well  fitted  enough 
for  its  own  work.  You  see  it  ?  That  black,  shiny, 
knotted  lump  among  the  gravel,  small  enough  to  be 
taken  up  in  a  dessert  spoon.  Look  now,  as  it  is 
raised  and  its  coils  drawn  out.  Three  feet — six — 
nine,  at  least :  with  a  capability  of  seemingly  end- 
less expansion ;  a  slimy  tape  of  living  caoutchouc, 
some  eight  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  a  dark  chocolate- 
black,  with  paler  longitudinal  lines.  Is  it  alive?  It 
hangs,  helpless  and  motionless,  a  mere  velvet  string 
across  the  hand.  Ask  the  neighbouring  Annelids 
and  the  fry  of  the  rock  fishes,  or  put  it  into  a  vase 
at  home,  and  see.  It  lies  motionless,  trailing  itself 
among  the  gravel ;  you  cannot  tell  where  it  begins 


THE   WONDERS   OF   THE   SEA-SHORE     99 

or  ends ;  it  may  be  a  dead  strip  of  sea-weed,  Hiraan- 
thalia  lorea,  perhaps,  or  Chorda  filum;  or  even  a 
tarred  string.  So  thinks  the  little  fish  who  plays 
over  and  over  it,  till  he  touches  at  last  what  is  too 
surely  a  head.  In  an  instant  a  bell-shaped  sucker 
mouth  has  fastened  to  his  side.  In  another  instant, 
from  one  lip,  a  concave  double  proboscis,  just  like 
a  tapir's  (another  instance  of  the  repetition  of  forms), 
has  clasped  him  like  a  finger ;  and  now  begins  the 
struggle :  but  in  vain.  He  is  being  '  played '  with 
such  a  fishing-line  as  the  skill  of  a  Wilson  or  a 
Stoddart  never  could  invent;  a  living  line,  with 
elasticity  beyond  that  of  the  most  delicate  fly-rod, 
which  follows  every  lunge,  shortening  and  lengthen- 
ing, slipping  and  twining  round  every  piece  of  gravel 
and  stem  of  sea-weed,  with  a  tiring  drag  such  as  no 
Highland  wrist  or  step  could  ever  bring  to  bear  on 
salmon  or  on  trout.  The  victim  is  tired  now ;  and 
slowly  and  yet  dexterously,  his  blind  assailant  is 
feeling  and  shifting  along  his  side,  till  he  reaches 
one  end  of  him;  and  then  the  black  lips  expand, 
and  slowly  and  surely  the  curved  finger  begins  pack- 
ing him  end-foremost  down  into  the  gullet,  where 
he  shinks,  inch  by  inch,  till  the  swelling  which  marks 
his  place  is  lost  among  the  coils,  and  he  is  probably 
macerated  to  a  pulp  long  before  he  has  reached  the 
opposite  extremity  of  his  cave  of  doom.  Once  safe 
down,  the  black  murderer  slowly  contracts  again 
into  a  knotted  heap,  and  lies,  like  a  boa  with  a  stag 
inside  him,  motionless  and  blest1. 

1  Certain  Parisian  zoologists  have  done  me  the  honour  to  hint 
that  this  description  was  a  play  of  fancy.     I  can  only  answer  that 


100  GLAUCUS 

There ;  we  must  come  away  now,  for  the  tide  is 
over  our  ankles :  but  touch,  before  you  go,  one  of 
those  little  red  mouths  which  peep  out  of  the  stone. 
A  tiny  jet  of  water  shoots  up  almost  into  your  face. 


Saxicava  rugosa  (la  and  Ib,  shell). 

The  bivalve  (Saxicava  rugosa)  who  has  burrowed 
into  the  limestone  knot  (the  softest  part  of  the  stone 
to  his  jaws,  though  the  hardest 
to  your  chisel)  is  scandalised  at 
having  the  soft  mouths  of  his 
siphons  so  rudely  touched,  and 
taking  your  finger  for  some 
bothering  Annelid,  who  wants 
to  nibble  him,  is  defending  him- 
self ;  shooting  you,  as  naturalists 
do  humming-birds,  with  water. 
Let  him  rest  in  peace;  it  will  cost 
you  ten  minutes'  hard  work,  and 
much  dirt,  to  extract  him ;  but 
if  you  are  fond  of  shells,  secure 
one  or  two  of  those  beautiful 
pink  and  straw-coloured  scallops 
(Hinnites  pusio)  who  have  gradu- 
ally incorporated  the  layers  of 


Hinnites  pusio. 


I  saw  it  with  my  own  eyes,  in  my  own  aquarium.  I  am  not,  I 
hope,  in  the  habit  of  drawing  on  my  fancy  in  the  presence  of 
infinitely  more  marvellous  Nature.  Truth  is  quite  strange  enough 
to  be  interesting  without  lies. 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     101 

their  lower  valve  with  the  roughness  of  the  stone, 
destroying  thereby  the  beautiful  form  which  belongs 
to  their  race,  but  not  their  delicate  colour.  There 
are  a  few  more  bivalves  too,  adhering  to  the  stone, 
and  those  rare  ones;  and  two  or  three  delicate 
Mangelise  and  Nassse,  and  the  common  Littorina 
littorea,  are  trailing  their  graceful  spires  up  and 


Littorina  littorea 
(Periwinkle). 

down  in  search  of  food.  That  little  bright  red  and 
yellow  pea,  too,  touch  it — the  brilliant  coloured 
cloak  is  withdrawn,  and,  instead,  you  have  a  beauti- 
fully ribbed  pink  cowry  (Cypraea  europaea),  our 
only  European  representative  of  that  grand  tropical 
family.  Cast  one  wondering  glance,  too,  at  the 
forest  of  zoophytes  and  corals,  Lepraliae  and  Flustrse, 
and  those  quaint  blue  stars,  set  in  brown  jelly,  which 
are  no  zoophytes,  but  respectable  molluscs,  each  with 
his  well-formed  mouth  and  intestines  (Botrylli),  but 
combined  in  a  peculiar  form  of  Communism,  of  which 
all  one  can  say  is,  that  one  hopes  they  like  it; 
and  that,  at  all  events,  they  agree  better  than  the 
heroes  and  heroines  of  Mr.  Hawthorne's  '  Blithedale 
Kornance '. 


102  GLAUCUS 

Now  away,  and  as  a  specimen  of  the  fertility  of 
the  water-world  look  at  this  rough  list  of  species, 
Molluscs :  Doris  tuberculata,  bilineata ;  Eolis  papil- 
losa ;  Pleurobranchus  plumula ;  Neritina  ;  Cyprsea ; 
Trochus  (2  species) ;  Mangelia ;  Triton ;  Trophon ; 
Nassa  (2  species);  Cerithium;  Sigaretus;  Fissu- 
rella ;  Area  lactea ;  Pecten  pusio ;  Tapes  pullastra ; 
Kellia  suborbicularis;  Sphaenia  Binghami;  Saxicava 
rugosa ;  Gastrochoena  pholadia ;  Pholas  parva ; 
Anomiae  (2  or  3  species) ;  Cynthia  (2  species) ; 
Botryllus  (2  species);  Sydinum  (?).  Annelids:  Phyl- 
lodoce,  and  other  Nereid  worms;  Polynoe  squamata. 
Crustacea:  4  or  5  species.  Eckinoderms:  Echinus 
miliaris ;  Asterias  gibbosa ;  Ophiocoma  neglecta ; 
Cucumaria  Hyndmanni,  communis.  Polypes:  Sertu- 
laria  pumila,  rugosa,  fallax,  filicula ;  Plumularia 
falcata,  setacea ;  Laomedea  geniculata ;  Campanu- 
laria  volubilis;  Actinia  mesembryanthemum,  cla- 
vata,  anguicoma,  crassicornis ;  Tubulipora  patina, 
hispida,  serpens;  Crisia  eburnea;  Cellepora  pumi- 
cosa;  Lepraliae  (many  species);  Membranipora  pilosa ; 
Cellularia  ciliata,  scruposa,  reptans ;  Flustra  mem- 
branacea,  etc.,  the  greater  part  of  which  are  on 
this  very  stone,  and  all  of  which  you  might  obtain 
in  an  hour,  would  the  rude  tide  wait  for  zoologists ; 
and  remember  that  the  number  of  individuals  of 
each  species  of  polype  must  be  counted  by  tens  of 
thousands;  and  also,  that,  by  searching  the  forest 
of  sea-weeds  which  covers  the  upper  surface,  we 
should  probably  obtain  some  twenty  minute  species 
more. 

A  goodly  catalogue  this,  surely,  of  the  inhabitants 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     103 

of  three  or  four  large  stones ;  and  yet  how  small  a 
specimen  of  the  multitudinous  nations  of  the  sea ! 
From  the  bare  rocks  above  high-water  mark,  down 
to  abysses  deeper  than  ever  plummet  sounded,  is 
life,  everywhere  life ;  fauna  after  fauna,  and  flora 
after  flora,  arranged  in  zones,  according  to  the  amount 
of  light  and  warmth  which  each  species  requires,  and 
to  the  amount  of  pressure  which  they  are  able  to 
endure.  The  crevices  of  the  highest  rocks,  only 
sprinkled  with  salt  spray  in  spring-tides  and  high 
gales,  have  their  peculiar  little  univalves,  their  crisp 
lichen-like  sea-weeds,  in  myriads ;  lower  down,  the 
region  of  the  Fuci  (bladder-weeds)  has  its  own  tribes 
of  periwinkles  and  limpets ;  below  again,  about  the 
neap-tide  mark,  the  region  of  the  corallines  and  Algse 
furnishes  food  for  yet  other  species  who  graze  on  its 
watery  meadows ;  and  beneath  all,  only  uncovered  at 
low  spring-tide,  the  zone  of  the  Laminariae  (the  great 
tangles  and  oar-weeds)  is  most  full  of  all  of  every 
imaginable  form  of  life.  So  that  as  we  descend  the 
rocks,  we  may  compare  ourselves  (likening  small 
things  to  great)  to  those  who,  descending  the  Andes, 
pass  in  a  single  day  from  the  vegetation  of  the  Arctic 
zone  to  that  of  the  Tropics.  And  here  and  there, 
even  at  half-tide  level,  deep  rock-basins,  shaded 
from  the  sun  and  always  full  of  water,  keep  up  in  a 
higher  zone  the  vegetation  of  a  lower  one,  and  afford 
in  miniature  an  analogy  to  those  deep  '  barrancos ' 
which  split  the  high  table-land  of  Mexico,  down 
whose  awful  cliffs,  swept  by  cool  sea-breezes,  the 
traveller  looks  from  among  the  plants  and  animals 
of  the  temperate  zone,  and  sees  far  below,  dim 


104  GLAUCUS 

through  their  everlasting  vapour-bath  of  rank  hot 
steam,  the  mighty  forms  and  gorgeous  colours  of  a 
tropic  forest. 

"  I  do  not  wonder  ",  says  Mr.  Gosse,  in  his  charm- 
ing "  Naturalist's  Eambles "  (p.  187)  "  that  when 
Southey  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  some  of  those 
beautiful  quiet  basins  hollowed  in  the  living  rock, 
and  stocked  with  elegant  plants  and  animals,  having 
all  the  charm  of  novelty  to  his  eye,  they  should 
have  moved  his  poetic  fancy,  and  found  more  than 
one  place  in  the  gorgeous  imagery  of  his  Oriental 
romances.  Just  listen  to  him  : — 

" '  It  was  a  garden  still  beyond  all  price, 
Even  yet  it  was  a  place  of  paradise  : 

And  here  were  coral  bovvers, 

And  grots  of  madrepores, 
And  banks  of  sponge,  as  soft  and  fair  to  eye 
As  e'er  was  mossy  bed 

Whereon  the  wood-nymphs  lie 
With  languid  limbs  in  summer's  sultry  hours. 

Here,  too,  were  living  flowers, 

Which,  like  a  bud  compacted, 

Their  purple  cups  contracted  ; 

And  now  in  open  blossom  spread, 
Stretch'd,  like  green  anthers,  many  a  seeking  head. 

And  arborets  of  jointed  stone  were  there, 
And  plants  of  fibres  fine  as  silkworm's  thread  ; 

Yea,  beautiful  as  mermaid's  golden  hair 

Upon  the  waves  dispread. 
Others  that,  like  the  broad  banana  growing, 
Raised  their  long  wrinkled  leaves  of  purple  hue, 

Like  streamers  wide  outflowing.'— Kehama,  xvi.  5. 

"  A  hundred  times  you  might  fancy  you  saw  the 
type,  the  very  original  of  this  description,  tracing, 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     105 

line  by  line,  and  image  by  image,  the  details  of  the 
picture ;  and  acknowledging,  as  you  proceed,  the 
minute  truthfulness  with  which  it  has  been  drawn. 
For  such  is  the  loveliness  of  nature  in  these  secluded 
reservoirs,  that  the  accomplished  poet,  when  depicting 
the  gorgeous  scenes  of  Eastern  mythology — scenes 
the  wildest  and  most  extravagant  that  imagination 
could  paint — drew  not  upon  the  resources  of  his 
prolific  fancy  for  imagery  here,  but  was  well  content 
to  jot  down  the  simple  lineaments  of  nature  as  he 
saw  her  in  plain,  homely  England. 

"  It  is  a  beautiful  and  fascinating  sight  for  those 
who  have  never  seen  it  before,  to  see  the  little 
shrubberies  of  pink  coralline — '  the  arborets  of 
jointed  stone' — that  fringe  those  pretty  pools.  It 
is  a  charming  sight  to  see  the  crimson  banana-like 
leaves  of  the  Delesseria  waving  in  their  darkest 
corners;  and  the  purple  fibrous  tufts  of  Polysi- 
phonise  and  Ceramia,  '  fine  as  silkworm's  thread '. 
But  there  are  many  others  which  give  variety  and 
impart  beauty  to  these  tide-pools.  The  broad  leaves 
of  the  Ulva,  finer  than  the  finest  cambric,  and  of 
the  brightest  emerald-green,  adorn  the  hollows  at  the 
highest  level,  while,  at  the  lowest,  wave  tiny  forests 
of  the  feathery  Ptilota  and  Dasya,  and  large  leaves, 
cut  into  fringes  and  furbelows,  of  rosy  Ehodymeniae. 
All  these  are  lovely  to  behold ;  but  I  think  I  admire 
as  much  as  any  of  them,  one  of  the  commonest  of 
our  marine  plants,  Chondrus  Crispus.  It  occurs  in 
th^  greatest  profusion  on  this  coast,  in  every  pool 
between  tide-marks;  and  everywhere — except  in 
those  of  the  highest  level,  where  constant  exposure 


106  GLAUCUS 

to  light  dwarfs  the  plant,  and  turns  it  of  a  dull 
umber-brown  tint — it  is  elegant  in  form  and  brilliant 
in  colour.  The  expanding  fan-shaped  fronds,  cut 
into  segments,  cut,  and  cut  again,  make  fine  bushy 
tufts  in  a  deep  pool,  and  every  segment  of  every 
frond  reflects  a  flush  of  the  most  lustrous  azure, 
like  that  of  a  tempered  sword-blade  ". 

And  the  sea -bottom,  also,  has  its  zones,  at  different 
depths,  and  its  peculiar  forms  in  peculiar  spots, 
affected  by  the  currents  and  the  nature  of  the 
ground,  the  riches  of  which  have  to  be  seen,  alas ! 
rather  by  the  imagination  than  the  eye;  for  such 
spoonfuls  of  the  treasure  as  the  dredge  brings  up  to 
us,  come  too  often  rolled  and  battered,  torn  from 
their  sites  and  contracted  by  fear,  mere  hints  to  us 
of  what  the  populous  reality  below  is  like.  And 
often,  standing  on  the  shore  at  low  tide,  has  one 
longed  to  walk  on  and  in  under  the  waves,  as  the 
water-ousel  does  in  the  pools  of  the  mountain  burn, 
and  see  it  all  but  for  a  moment;  and  a  solemn 
beauty  and  meaning  has  invested  the  old  Greek 
fable  of  Glaucus  the  fisherman ;  how,  eating  of  the 
herb  which  gave  his  fish  strength  to  leap  back  into 
their  native  element,  he  was  seized  on  the  spot  with 
a  strange  longing  to  follow  them  under  the  waves, 
and  became  for  ever  a  companion  of  the  fair  semi- 
human  forms  with  which  the  Hellenic  poets  peopled 
their  sunny  bays  and  firths,  feeding  his  "silent 
flocks"  far  below  on  the  green  Zostera  beds,  or 
basking  with  them  on  the  sunny  ledges  in  the 
summer  noon,  or  wandering  in  the  still  bays  on 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     107 

sultry  nights   amid   the   choir  of   Amphitrite  and 
her  sea-nymphs, 

"  Joining  the  bliss  of  the  gods,  as  they  waken  the  coves  with 
their  laughter  " 

In  nightly  revels,  whereof  one  has  sung 

"  So  they  came  up  in  their  joy  ;  and  before  them  the  roll  of 

the  surges 

Sank,  as  the  breezes  sank  dead,  into  smooth  green  foam- 
flecked  marble 
Awed  ;   and  the  crags  of   the  cliffs,  and  the  pines  of  the 

mountains,  were  silent. 
So  they  came  up  in  their  joy,  and  around  them  the  lamps  of 

the  sea-nymphs, 

Myriad  fiery  globes,  swam  heaving  and  panting,  and  rain- 
bows, 
Crimson  and  azure  and  emerald,  were  broken  in  star-showers, 

lighting 
Far  in  the  wine-dark  depths  of  the  crystal,  the  gardens  of 

Nereus, 
Coral  and  sea-fan  and  tangle,  the  blooms  and  the  palms  of 

the  ocean. 
So  they  went  on  in  their  joy,  more  white  than  the  foam 

which  they  scattered, 
Laughing  and  singing  and  tossing  and  twining,  while  eager, 

the  Tritons 
Blinded  with  kisses  their  eyes,  unreproved,  and  above  them 

in  worship 
Fluttered  the  terns,  and  the  sea-gulls  swept  pass  them  on 

silvery  pinions, 
Echoing  softly  their  laughter  ;  around  them  the  wantoning 

dolphins 
Sighed  as  they  plunged,  full  of  love ;  and  the  great  sea-horses 

which  bore  them 
Curved  up  their  crests  in  their  pride  to  the  delicate  arms  of 

their  riders, 
Pawing  the  spray  into  gems,  till  a  fiery  rainfall,  unharming, 


108  GLAUCUS 

Sparkled  and  gleamed  on  the  limbs  of  the  maids,  and  the 

coils  of  the  mermen. 
So  they  went  on  in  their  joy,  bathed  round  with  the  fiery 

coolness, 

Needing  nor  sun  nor  moon,  self-lighted,  immortal :  but  others 
Pitiful,  floated  in  silence  apart ;  on  their  knees  lay  the  sea- 
boys 
Whelmed  by  the  roll  of  the  surge,  swept  down  by  the  anger 

of  Nereus ; 
Hapless,  whom  never  again  upon  quay  or  strand  shall  their 

mothers 
Welcome  with  garlands  and  vows  to  the  temples ;  but  wearily 

pining, 
Gaze  over  island  and  main  for  the  sails  which  return  not ; 

they  heedless 
Sleep  in  soft  bosoms  for  ever,  and  dream  of  the  surge  and  the 

sea-maids. 
So  they  past  by  in  their  joy,  like  a  dream,  on  the  murmuring 

ripple  ". 

Such  a  rhapsody  may  be  somewhat  out  of  order, 
even  in  a  popular  scientific  book ;  and  yet  one  can- 
not help  at  moments  envying  the  old  Greek  imagi- 
nation, which  could  inform  the  soulless  sea-world 
with  a  human  life  and  beauty.  For,  after  all,  star- 
fishes and  sea-anemones  are  dull  substitutes  for 
Sirens  and  Tritons;  the  lamps  of  the  sea-nymphs, 
those  glorious  phosphorescent  medusae  whose  beauty 
Mr.  Gosse  sets  forth  so  well  with  pen  and  pencil, 
are  not  as  attractive  as  the  sea-nymphs  themselves 
would  be ;  and  who  would  not,  like  Menelaus,  take 
the  grey  old  man  of  the  sea  himself  asleep  upon  the 
rocks,  rather  than  one  of  his  seal-herd,  probably  too 
with  the  same  result  as  the  world-famous  combat  in 
the  Antiquary,  between  Hector  and  Phoca?  And 
yet — is  there  no  human  interest  in  these  pursuits, 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     109 

more  human,  ay,  and  more  divine,  than  there  would 
be  even  in  those  Triton  and  Nereid  dreams,  if  realised 
to  sight  and  sense?  Heaven  forbid  that  those  should 
say  so,  whose  wanderings  among  rock  and  pool  have 
been  mixed  up  with  holiest  passages  of  friendship 
and  of  love,  and  the  intercommunion  of  equal  minds 
and  sympathetic  hearts,  and  the  laugh  of  children 
drinking  in  health  from  every  breeze,  and  instruction 
at  every  step,  running  ever  and  anon  with  proud 
delight  to  add  their  little  treasure  to  their  parents' 
stock,  and  of  happy  friendly  evenings  spent  over  the 
microscope  and  the  vase,  in  examining,  arranging, 
preserving,  noting  down  in  the  diary  the  wonders 
and  the  labours  of  the  happy,  busy  day.  No ;  such 
short  glimpses  of  the  water-world  as  our  present 
appliances  afford  us,  are  full  enough  of  pleasure ; 
and  we  will  not  envy  Glaucus ;  we  will  not  even  be 
over-anxious  for  the  success  of  his  only  modern 
imitator,  the  French  naturalist  who  is  reported  to 
have  just  fitted  himself  with  a  waterproof  dress 
and  breathing  apparatus,  in  order  to  walk  the 
bottom  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  see  for  himself 
how  the  world  goes  on  at  the  fifty-fathom  line :  we 
will  be  content  with  the  wonders  of  the  shore  and 
of  the  sea-floor,  as  far  as  the  dredge  will  discover 
them  to  us.  We  shall  even  thus  find  enough  to 
occupy  (if  we  choose)  our  life-time.  For  we  must 
recollect  that  this  hasty  sketch  has  not  even  touched 
on  that  vegetable  water- world,  which  is  as  wonderful 
and  as  various  as  the  animal  one.  A  hasty  hint  or 
two  of  the  beauty  of  the  sea- weeds  has  been  given; 
but  space  has  allowed  no  more.  Yet  we  might  have 


110  GLAUCUS 

spent  our  time  with  almost  as  much  interest  and 
profit,  had  we  neglected  utterly  the  animals  which 
we  have  found,  and  devoted  our  attention  exclu- 
sively to  the  flora  of  the  rocks.  Sea-weeds  are  no 
mere  playthings  for  children ;  and  to  buy  at  a  shop 
some  thirty  pretty  kinds,  pasted  on  paper,  with 
long  names  (probably  mis-spelt)  written  under  each, 
is  not  by  any  means  to  possess  a  collection  of  them. 
Putting  aside  the  number  and  the  obscurity  of  their 
species,  the  questions  which  arise  in  studying  their 
growth,  reproduction,  and  organic  chemistry,  are  of 
the  very  deepest  and  most  important  in  the  whole 
range  of  science ;  and  it  will  need  but  a  little  study 
of  such  a  book  as  Harvey's  "Algse",  to  show  the 
wise  man  that  he  who  has  comprehended  (which  no 
man  yet  does)  the  mystery  of  a  single  spore  or 
tissue-cell,  has  reached  depths  in  the  great  '  Science 
of  Life'  at  which  an  Owen  would  still  confess  him- 
self "  blind  by  excess  of  light ".  "  Knowest  thou 
how  the  bones  grow  in  the  womb  ? "  asks  the  Jewish 
sage,  sadly,  half  self-reprovingly,  as  he  discovers 
that  man  is  not  the  measure  of  all  things,  and  that 
in  much  learning  may  be  vanity  and  vexation  of 
spirit,  and  in  much  study  a  weariness  of  the  flesh  ; 
and  all  our  deeper  physical  science  only  brings  the 
same  question  more  awfully  near.  "  Vilior  alga ", 
more  worthless  than  the  very  sea-weed,  says  the  old 
Eoman ;  and  yet  no  torn  scrap  of  that  very  sea- 
weed, which  to-morrow  will  manure  the  nearest 
garden,  but  says  to  us  "Proud  man!  talking  of 
spores  and  vesicles,  if  thou  darest  for  a  moment  to 
fancy  that  to  have  seen  spores  and  vesicles  is  to 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     111 

have  seen  me,  or  to  know  what  I  am,  answer  this. 
Knowest  thou  how  the  bones  do  grow  in  the  womb? 
Knowest  thou  even  how  one  of  these  tiny  black 
dots,  which  thou  callest  spores,  grow  on  my  fronds?" 
And  to  that  question  what  answer  shall  we  make  ? 
We  see  tissues  divide,  cells  develop,  processes  go  on 
— but  How  and  Why  ?  These  are  but  phenomena ; 
but  what  are  phenomena  but  effects  ?  Causes,  it 
may  be,  of  other  effects;  but  still  effects  of  other 
causes.  And  why  does  the  cause  cause  that  effect  ? 
Why  should  it  not  cause  something  else  ?  Why 
should  it  cause  anything  at  all  ?  Because  it  obeys 
a  law.  But  why  does  it  obey  the  law  ?  and  how 
does  it  obey  the  law?  And,  after  all,  what  is  a 
law  ?  A  mere  custom  of  nature.  We  see  the  same 
phenomenon  happen  a  great  many  times;  and  we 
infer  from  thence  that  it  has  a  custom  of  happen- 
ing ;  and  therefore  we  call  it  a  law :  but  we  have 
not  seen  the  law ;  all  we  have  seen  is  the  pheno- 
menon which  we  suppose  to  indicate  the  law:  we 
have  seen  things  fall ;  but  we  never  saw  a  little 
flying  thing  pulling  them  down,  with  '  gravitation ' 
labelled  on  its  back ;  and  the  question,  why  things 
fall,  and  how,  is  just  where  it  was  before  Newton 
was  born,  and  is  likely  to  remain  there.  All  we 
can  say  is,  that  Nature  has  her  customs,  and  that 
other  customs  ensue,  when  those  customs  appear : 
but  that  as  to  what  connects  cause  and  effect,  as  to 
what  is  the  reason,  the  final  'cause,  or  even  the  causa 
causans,  of  any  phenomenon,  we  know  not  more, 
but  less  than  ever ;  for  those  laws  or  customs  which 
seem  to  us  simplest  (' endosmose ',  for  instance,  or 


112  GLAUCUS 

gravitation),  are  just  the  most  inexplicable,  logically 
unexpected,  seemingly  arbitrary,  certainly  super- 
natural— miraculous,  if  you  will;  for  no  natural 
and  physical  cause  whatsoever  can  be  assigned  for 
them ;  while  if  any  one  shall  argue  against  their 
being  miraculous  and  supernatural  on  the  ground  of 
their  being  so  common,  I  can  only  answer,  that  of 
all  absurd  and  illogical  arguments,  this  is  the  most 
so.  For  what  has  the  number  of  times  which  the 
miracle  occurs  to  do  with  the  question,  save  to  in- 
crease the  wonder?  Which  is  more  strange,  that 
an  inexplicable  and  unfathomable  thing  should 
occur  once  and  for  all,  or  that  it  should  occur  a 
million  times  every  day  all  the  world  over  ? 

Let  those,  however,  who  are  too  proud  to  wonder 
do  as  seems  good  to  them.  Their  want  of  wonder 
will  not  help  them  toward  the  required  explana- 
tion ;  and  to  them,  as  to  us,  as  soon  as  we  begin 
asking  '  How  ? '  and  '  Why  ? ',  the  mighty  Mother 
will  only  reply  with  that  magnificent  smile  of  hers, 
most  genial,  but  most  silent,  which  she  has  worn 
since  the  foundation  of  all  worlds ;  that  silent  smile 
which  has  tempted  many  a  man  to  suspect  her  of 
irony,  even  of  deceit  and  hatred  of  the  human  race ; 
the  silent  smile  which  Solomon  felt,  and  answered 
in  "  Ecclesiastes " ;  which  Goethe  felt,  and  did  not 
answer  in  his  "  Faust " ;  which  Pascal  felt,  and  tried 
to  answer  in  his  "Thoughts",  and  fled  from  into 
self-torture  and  superstition,  terrified  beyond  his 
powers  of  endurance,  as  he  found  out  the  true 
meaning  of  St.  John's  vision,  and  felt  himself  really 
standing  on  that  fragile  and  slippery  "  sea  of  glass  ", 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     113 

and  close  beneath  him  the  bottomless  abyss  of  doubt, 
and  the  nether  fires  of  moral  retribution.  He  fled 
from  Nature's  silent  smile,  as  that  poor  old  King 
Edward  (mis-called  the  Confessor)  fled  from  her 
hymns  of  praise,  in  the  old  legend  of  Havering- 
atte-bower,  when  he  cursed  the  nightingales  because 
their  songs  confused  him  in  his  prayers :  but  the 
wise  man  need  copy  neither,  and  fear  neither  the 
silence  nor  the  laughter  of  the  mighty  mother 
Earth,  if  he  will  be  but  wise,  and  hear  her  tell  him, 
alike  in  both — "Why  call  me  mother?  Why  ask 
me  for  knowledge  which  I  cannot  teach,  peace  which 
I  cannot  give  or  take  away  ?  I  am  only  your  foster- 
mother  and  your  nurse — and  I  have  not  been  an 
unkindly  one.  But  you  are  God's  children,  and 
not  mine.  Ask  Him.  I  can  amuse  you  with  my 
songs ;  but  they  are  but  a  nurse's  lullaby  to  the 
weary  flesh.  I  can  awe  you  with  my  silence ;  but 
my  silence  is  only  my  just  humility,  and  your  gain. 
How  dare  I  pretend  to  tell  you  secrets  which  He 
who  made  me  knows  alone  ?  I  am  but  inanimate 
matter;  why  ask  of  me  things  which  belong  to 
living  spirit  ?  In  God  I  live  and  move,  and  have 
my  being;  I  know  not  how,  any  more  than  thou 
knowest.  Who  will  tell  thee  what  life  is,  save  He 
who  is  the  Lord  of  life  ?  And  if  He  will  not  tell 
thee,  be  sure  it  is  because  thou  needest  not  to  know. 
At  least,  why  seek  God  in  nature,  the  living  among 
the  dead  ?  He  is  not  here :  He  is  risen." 

He  is  not  here :  He  is  risen.  Good  reader,  you 
will  probably  agree  that  to  know  that  saying,  is  to 
know  the  key-note  of  the  world  to  come.  Believe 


114  GLAUCUS 

me,  to  know  it,  and  all  it  means,  is  to  know  the 
key-note  of  this  world  also,  from  the  fall  of  dynas- 
ties and  the  fate  of  nations,  to  the  sea-weed  which 
rots  upon  the  beach. 

It  may  seem  startling,  possibly  (though  I  hope 
not,  for  my  readers'  sake,  irreverent),  to  go  back  at 
once  after  such  thoughts,  be  they  true  or  false,  to 
the  weeds  upon  the  cliff  above  our  heads.  But  He 
who  is  not  here,  but  is  risen,  yet  is  here,  and  has 
appointed  them  their  services  in  a  wonderful  order ; 
and  I  wish  that  on  some  day,  or  on  many  days, 
when  a  quiet  sea  and  offshore  breezes  have  pre- 
vented any  new  objects  from  coming  to  land  with 
the  rising  tide,  you  would  investigate  the  flowers 
peculiar  to  our  sea-rocks  and  sandhills.  Even  if 
you  do  not  find  the  delicate  lily-like  Trichonema 
of  the  Channel  Islands  and  Dawlish,  or  the  almost 
as  beautiful  Squill  of  the  Cornish  cliffs,  or  the  sea- 
lavender  of  North  Devon,  or  any  of  those  rare 
Mediterranean  species  which  Mr.  Johns  has  so 
charmingly  described  in  his  "Week  at  the  Lizard 
Point ",  yet  an  average  cliff,  with  its  carpeting  of 
pink  thrift  and  of  bladder  catchfly,  and  Lady's 
finger,  and  elegant  grasses,  most  of  them  peculiar 
to  the  sea-marge,  is  often  a  very  lovely  flower-bed. 

Not  merely  interesting,  too,  but  brilliant  in  their 
vegetation  are  sandhills;  and  the  seemingly  desolate 
dykes  and  banks  of  salt  marshes  will  yield  many  a 
curious  plant,  which  you  may  neglect  if  you  will ; 
but  lay  to  your  account  the  having  to  repent  your 
neglect  hereafter,  when,  finding  out  too  late  what  a 
pleasant  study  botany  is,  you  search  in  vain  for 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     115 

curious  forms  over  which  you  trod  every  day,  in 
crossing  flats  which  seemed  to  you  utterly  ugly  and 
uninteresting,  but  which  the  good  God  was  watch- 
ing as  carefully  as  He  did  the  pleasant  hills  inland : 
perhaps  even  more  carefully;  for  the  uplands  He 
has  completed,  and  handed  over  to  man,  that  he 
may  dress  and  keep  them :  but  the  tide-flats  below 
are  still  unfinished,  dry  land  in  the  process  of  crea- 
tion, to  which  every  tide  is  adding  the  elements  of 
fertility,  which  shall  grow  food,  perhaps  in  some 
future  state  of  our  planet,  for  generations  yet 
unborn. 

But  to  return  to  the  water-world,  and  to  dredging, 
which  of  all  sea-side  pursuits  is  perhaps  the  most 
pleasant,  combining  as  it  does  fine  weather  sailing 
with  the  discovery  of  new  objects,  to  which,  after  all, 
the  waifs  and  strays  of  the  beach,  whether  '  flotsom, 
jetsom,  or  lagand ',  as  the  old  Admiralty  laws  define 
them,  are  few  and  poor.  I  say  particularly  fine 
weather  sailing ;  for  a  swell,  which  makes  the  dredge 
leap  along  the  bottom,  instead  of  scraping  steadily, 
is  as  fatal  to  sport  as  it  is  to  some  people's  comfort. 
But  dredging,  if  you  use  a  pleasure  boat  and  the 
small  naturalist's  dredge,  is  an  amusement  in  which 
ladies,  if  they  will,  may  share,  and  which  will  in- 
crease, and  not  interfere  with  the  amusements  of 
a  water-party. 

The  naturalist's  dredge,  of  which  Mr.  Gosse's 
"  Aquarium  "  gives  a  detailed  account,  should  differ 
from  the  common  oyster  dredge  in  being  smaller; 
certainly  not  more  than  four  feet  across  the  mouth  ; 
and  instead  of  having  but  one  iron  scraping-lip, 


116  GLAUCUS 

like  the  oyster  dredge,  it  should  have  two,  one 
above  and  one  below,  so  that  it  will  work  equally 
well  on  whichsoever  side  it  falls,  or  how  often  so- 
ever it  may  be  turned  over  by  rough  ground.  The 
bag-net  should  be  of  strong  spunyarn,  or  (still 
better)  of  hide  "such  as  those  hides  of  the  wild 
cattle  of  the  Pampas,  which  the  tobacconists  receive 
from  South  America  ",  cut  into  thongs,  and  netted 
close.  It  should  be  loosely  laced  together  with  a 
thong  at  the  tail  edge,  in  order  to  be  opened  easily, 
when  brought  on  board,  without  canting  the  net 
over,  and  pouring  the  contents  roughly  out  through 
the  mouth.  The  dragging-rope  should  be  strong, 
and  at  least  three  times  as  long  as  the  perpendicular 
depth  of  the  water  in  which  you  are  working;  if, 
indeed,  there  is  much  breeze,  or  any  swell  at  all, 
still  more  line  should  be  veered  out.  The  inboard 
end  should  be  made  fast  somewhere  in  the  stern 
sheets,  the  dredge  hove  to  windward,  the  boat  put 
before  the  wind ;  and  you  may  then  amuse  yourself 
as  you  will  for  the  next  quarter  of  an  hour,  pro- 
vided that  you  have  got  ready  various  wide-mouthed 
bottles  for  the  more  delicate  monsters,  and  a  couple 
of  buckets,  to  receive  the  large  lumps  of  oysters 
and  serpulse  which  you  will  probably  bring  to  the 
surface. 

As  for  a  dredging  ground,  one  may  be  found, 
I  suppose,  off  every  watering-place.  The  most 
fertile  spots  are  in  rough  ground,  in  not  less  than 
five  fathoms  water.  The  deeper  the  water,  the 
rarer  and  more  interesting  will  the  animals  gene- 
rally be :  but  a  greater  depth  than  fifteen  fathoms 


PLATE  VIII 


P.  H.  OOSSE  Del.     8  9  And*  A  Sleigh.  Ltd. 

1-5.     CORYNACTIS  VIRIDIS.  9,10.  ZOANTHUS  CONCHII. 

6.  BOLOGERA  EQUES.  11.  AURELIANIA  AUGUSTA. 

7.  ZOANTHUS  SULCATUS.  12.  A.                          HETEROCERA. 
a     Z.                       ALDERI.  13.  CAPNEA  SANGUINEA. 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     117 

is  not  easily  reached  on  this  side  of  Plymouth ; 
and,  on  the  whole,  the  beginner  will  find  enough 
in  seven  or  eight  fathoms  to  stock,  in  one  day,  an 
aquarium  rivalling  any  of  those  in  the  '  Tank-house ' 
at  the  Zoological  Gardens. 

In  general,  the  south  coast  of  England,  to  the 
eastward  of  Portland,  affords  bad  dredging-ground. 
The  friable  cliffs,  of  comparatively  recent  forma- 
tions, keep  the  sea  shallow,  and  the  bottom  smooth 
and  bare,  by  the  vast  deposits  of  sand  and  gravel. 
Yet  round  the  Isle  of  Wight,  especially  at  the  back 
of  the  Needles,  there  ought  to  be  fertile  spots; 
and  Weymouth,  according  to  Mr.  Gosse  and  other 
well-known  naturalists,  is  a  very  garden  of  Nereus. 
Torbay,  as  may  well  be  supposed,  is  an  admirable 
dredging  spot ;  perhaps  its  two  best  points  are  round 
the  isolated  Thatcher  and  Oare-rock,  and  from  the 
mouth  of  Brixham  harbour  to  Berry  Head;  along 
which  last  line,  for  perhaps  three  hundred  years,  the 
decks  of  all  Brixham  trawlers  have  been  washed 
down  ere  running  into  harbour,  and  the  sea-bottom 
thus  stored  with  treasures  scraped  up  from  deeper 
water  in  every  direction  for  miles  and  miles. 

Hastings  is,  I  fear,  but  a  poor  spot  for  dredging. 
Its  friable  cliffs  and  strong  tides  produce  a  change- 
able and  barren  sea-floor.  Yet  the  immense  quanti- 
ties of  Flustra  thrown  up  after  a  storm  indicate 
dredging  ground  at  no  great  distance  outside;  its 
rocks,  uninteresting  as  they  are  compared  with  our 
Devonians,  have  yielded  to  the  industry  and  science 
of  M.  Tumanowicz  a  vast  number  of  sea-weeds  and 
sponges.  Those  three  curious  polypes,  Valkeria 


118 


GLAUCUS 


cuscuta,  Notamia  Bursaria,  and  Serialaria  lendigera, 
abound  within  tide  marks;  and  as  the  place  is  so 
much  visited  by  Londoners,  it  may  be  worth  while 
to  give  a  few  hints  as  to  what  might  be  done,  by 
any  one  whose  curiosity  has  been  excited  by  the 
salt-water  tanks  of  the  Zoological  Gardens. 


Gobius  niger  (Black  Goby).  Syngnathus  acus  (Great  Pipe  or 

Bell  Fish). 

An  hour  or  two's  dredging 
round  the  rocks  to  the  east- 
ward would  probably  yield 
many  delicate  and  brilliant 
little  fishes ;  Gobies,  brilliant 
Labri,  blue,  yellow,  and  orange, 
with  tiny  rabbit  mouths,  and 
powerful  protruding  teeth ; 
pipe  fishes  (Syngnathi)  with 
strange  snipe-bills  (which  they 
cannot  open)  and  snake-like 
bodies;  small  cuttle-fish 
(Sepiolse)  of  a  white  jelly 
mottled  with  brilliant  me- 
tallic hues,  with  a  ring  of 
suckered  arms  round  their 
tiny  parrots'  beaks,  who,  put 
into  a  jar,  will  hover  and  dart 
in  the  water,  as  the  sky-lark 


Cuttle-fish 
and  'pen.' 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     119 

does  in  air,  by  rapid  winnowings  of  their  glassy 
side-fins,  while  they  watch  you  with  bright  lizard- 
eyes  ;  the  whole  animal  being  a  combination  of  the 
vertebrate  and  the  mollusc,  so  utterly  fantastic  and 
abnormal,  that  (had  not  the  family  been  among 
the  commonest,  from  the  earliest  geological  epochs) 
it  would  have  seemed  to  man's  deductive  intellect, 
a  form  almost  as  impossible  as  the  mermaid,  far 
more  impossible  than  the  sea-serpent.  These,  and 
perhaps  a  few  handsome  sea-slugs  and  bivalve 
shells,  you  will  be  pretty  sure  to  find:  perhaps  a 
great  deal  more. 

Meanwhile,  without  dredging,  you  may  find  a 
good  deal  on  the  shore.  In  the  spring  Doris 
bilineata  (see  p.  93)  comes  to  the  rocks  in  thousands, 
to  lay  its  strange  white  furbelows  of  spawn  upon 
their  overhanging  edges.  Eolides  of  extraordinary 
beauty  haunt  the  same  spots.  The  great  Eolis 
papillosa,  of  a  delicate  French  grey  (see  p.  93) ; 
Eolis  pellucida  (?),  in  which  each  papilla  on  the 
back  is  beautifully  coloured  with  a  streak  of  pink, 
and  tipped  with  iron  blue;  and  a  most  fantastical 
yellow  little  creature,  so  covered  with  plumes  and 
tentacles  that  the  body  is  invisible,  which  I  believe 
to  be  the  Idalia  Aspersa  of  Alder  and  Hancock. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  rock  pools,  behind 
Leonard's  baths,  may  be  found 
hundreds  of  the  Snipe's  feather 
Anemone  (Sagartia  troglodytes), 
of  every  hue ;  from  the  common 
brown  and  grey  snipe's  feather 
kind,  to  the  white-horned 


120  GLAUCUS 

Hesperus,  the  orange-horned  Aurora,  and  a  rich 
lilac  and  crimson  variety,  which  does  not  seem  to 
agree  with  either  the  Lilacinia  or  Kubicunda  of 
Gosse.  A  more  beautiful  living  bouquet  could 
hardly  be  seen,  than  might  be  made  of  the  varie- 
ties of  this  single  species,  from  this  one  place. 

On  the  outside  sands  between  the  end  of  the 
Marina  and  the  Martello  tower,  you  may  find,  at 
very  low  tides,  great  numbers  of  a  sand-tube,  about 
three  inches  long,  standing  up  out  of  the  sand.  I 
do  not  mean  the  tubes  of  the  Terebella,  so  common 
in  all  sands,  which  are  somewhat  flexible,  and  have 
their  upper  end  fringed  with  a  ragged  ring  of  sandy 
arms :  those  I  speak  of  are  strait  and  stiff,  and 
ending  in  a  point  upward.  Draw  them  out  of  the 
sand — they  will  offer  some  resistance — and  put 
them  into  a  vase  of  water ;  you  will  see  the  worm 
inside  expand  two  delicate  golden  combs,  just  like 
old-fashioned  backhair  combs,  of  a  metallic  lustre, 
which  will  astonish  you.  With  these  combs  the 
worm  seems  to  burrow  head  downward  into  the 
sand;  but  whether  he  always  remains  in  that 
attitude  I  cannot  say.  His  name  is  Pectinaria 
belgica.  He  is  an  Annelid,  or  true  worm,  connected 
with  the  Serpulae  and  Sabellse  of  which  I  have 
spoken  already,  and  holds  himself  in  his  case  like 
them,  by  hooks  and  bristles  set  on  each  ring  of  his 
body.  In  confinement  he  will  probably  come  out  of 
his  case  and  die ;  when  you  may  dissect  him  at  your 
leisure,  and  learn  a  great  deal  more  about  him 
thereby  than  (I  am  sorry  to  say)  I  know. 

But  if  you  have  courage  to  run  out  fifteen  or 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     121 

twenty  miles  to  the  Diamond,  you  may  find  really 
rare  and  valuable  animals.  There  is  a  risk,  of  course, 
of  being  blown  over  to  the  coast  of  France,  by  a 
change  of  wind;  there  is  a  risk  also  of  not  being 
able  to  land  at  night  on  the  inhospitable  Hastings 
beach,  and  of  sleeping,  as  best  you  can,  on  board : 
but  in  the  long  days  and  settled  fine  weather  of 
summer,  the  trip,  in  a  stout  boat,  ought  to  be  a  safe 
and  a  pleasant  one. 

On  the  Diamond  you  will  find  many,  or  most  of 
those  gay  creatures  which  attract  your  eye  in  the 
central  row  of  tanks  at  the  Zoologi- 
cal Gardens:  great  twisted  masses 
of  Serpulse,  those  white  tubes  of 
stone,  from  the  mouth  of  which 
protrude  pairs  of  rose-coloured  or 
orange  fans,  flashing  in,  quick  as 
light,  the  moment  that  your  finger 
approaches  them  or  your  shadow 
crosses  the  water1. 

You  will  dredge,  too,  the  twelve- 
rayed  sun-star  (Solaster  papposa), 
with  his  rich  scarlet  armour ;  and 
more  strange,  and  quite  as  beauti-  Serpula 

ful,  the  bird's-foot  star  (Palmipes        contortuplicata. 
membranaceus),  which   you  may  see  crawling  by 
its  thousand  sucking-feet  about  one  of  the  central 
tanks,  a  pentagonal  webbed  bird's  foot,  of  scarlet 
and  orange  shagreen.     With  him,  most  probably, 

1  Do  Serpulre  see  ?  I  cannot  help  thinking  so,  with  my  friend 
their  keeper  at  the  Zoological  Gardens.  But  wiser  men  than  1  say 
they  can  rind  no  organs  of  vision. 


122 


GLAUCUS 


will    be    a   specimen   of    the   great  purple   heart- 
urchin  (Spatangus  purpureus),  clothed  in  pale  lilac 


Solaster  papposa 
(Common  Sun-star). 


Palmipes  membranaceus 
(Bird's-foot  Sea-star). 


horny   spines,  and   other   Echinoderms,  for   which 
you   must  consult  Forbes's  "British   Star-fishes"; 


Spatangus  purpureus  Ophiocoma  rosula 

(Purple  Heart- urchin).  (Common  Brittle-star). 

but  perhaps  the  species  among   them  which  will 
interest  you  most,  will  be  the  common  brittle-star 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     123 

(Ophiocoma  rosula),  of  which  a  hundred  or  so,  I 
can  promise,  shall  come  up  at  a  single  haul  of  the 
dredge,  entwining  their  long  spine-clad  arms  in  a 
seemingly  inextricable  confusion  of  '  kaleidoscope ' 
patterns  (thanks  to  Mr.  Gosse  for  the  one  right 
epithet),  purple  and  azure,  fawn,  brown,  green, 
grey,  white  and  crimson ;  as  if  a  whole  bed  of 
China-asters  should  have  first  come  to  life,  and 
then  gone  mad,  and  fallen  to  fighting.  But  pick 
out,  one  by  one,  specimens  from  the  tangled  mass, 
and  you  will  agree  that  no  China-aster  is  so  fair 
as  this  living  stone-flower  of  the  deep,  with  its 
daisy-like  disc,  and  fine  long  prickly  arms,  which 
never  cease  their  graceful  serpentine  motion,  and 
its  colours  hardly  alike  in  any  two  specimens: 
but  handle  them  not  too  roughly,  lest,  whether  in 
modesty  or  in  anger,  they  begin  a  desperate  course 
of  gradual  suicide,  and  breaking  off  arm  after  arm 
piecemeal,  fling  them  indignantly  at  their  tormentor. 
Along  with  these  you  will  certainly  obtain  a  few  of 
that  noble  bivalve,  the  great  Scallop,  which  you 
have  seen  lying  on  every  fishmonger's  counter  in 
Hastings.  Of  these  you  must  pick  out  those  which 
seem  dirtiest  and  most  overgrown  with  parasites, 
and  place  them  carefully  in  a  jar  of  salt  water, 
where  they  may  not  be  rubbed ;  for  they  are  worth 
your  examination,  not  merely  for  the  sake  of  that 
ring  of  gem-like  eyes  which  borders  their  '  cloak ', 
lying  along  the  extreme  outer  edge  of  the  shell 
as  the  valves  are  half  open,  but  for  the  sake  of  the 
parasites  outside :  corallines  of  exquisite  delicacy, 
Plumulariae  and  Sertulariae,  dead  men's  hands 


124 


GLAUCUS 


(Alcyonia),  lumps  of  white  or  orange  jelly,  which 
will  protrude  a  thousand  star-like  polypes,  and 
the  Tubularia  indivisa,  twisted  tubes  of  fine  straw, 
which  ought  already  to  have  puzzled  you ;  for  you 
may  pick  them  up  in  considerable  masses  on  the 
Hastings  beach  after  a  south-west  gale,  and  think 
long  over  them  before  you  determine  whether  the 
oat-like  stems  and  spongy  roots  belong  to  an  animal 
or  a  vegetable.  Animals  they  are,  nevertheless, 
though  even  now  you  will  hardly  guess  the  fact, 
when  you  see  at  the  mouth  of  each  tube  a  little 
scarlet  flower,  connected  with  the  pink  pulp  which 
fills  the  tube.  For  a  further  description  of  this 
largest  and  handsomest  of  our  Hydroid  Polypes, 
I  must  refer  you  to  Johnston,  or,  failing  him,  to 


Actinia  dianthus. 


Landsborough ;  and  go  on,  to  beg  you  not  to  de- 
spise those  pink,  or  grey,  or  white  lumps  of  jelly, 
which  will  expand  in  salt  water  into  exquisite  sea- 
anemones,  of  quite  different  forms  from  any  which 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     125 

we  have  found  along  the  rocks.  One  of  them  will 
certainly  be  the  Dianthus,  which  will  open  into  a 
furbelowed  flower,  furred  with  innumerable  delicate 
tentacula ;  and  in  the  centre,  a  mouth  of  the  most 
brilliant  orange,  the  size  of  the  whole  animal  being 
perhaps  eight  inches  high  and  five  across.  Perhaps 
it  will  be  of  a  satiny  grey,  perhaps  pale  rose, 
perhaps  pure  white ;  whatever  its  colour,  it  is  the 
very  maiden  queen  of  all  the  beautiful  tribe,  and 
one  of  the  loveliest  gems,  in  my  opinion,  with 
which  it  has  pleased  God  to  bedeck  this  lower 
world. 

These  and  much  more  you  will  find  on  the 
scallops,  or  even  more  plentifully  on  any  lump  of 
ancient  oysters ;  and  if  you  do  not  dredge,  it  would 
be  well  worth  your  while  to  make  interest  with 
the  fishmonger  for  a  few  oyster-lumps,  put  into 
water  the  moment  they  are  taken  out  of  the  trawl. 
Divide  them  carefully,  clear  out  the  oysters  with  a 
knife,  and  put  the  shells  into  your  aquarium,  and 
you  will  find  that  an  oyster  at  home  is  a  very 
different  thing  from  an  oyster  on  a  stall. 

You  ought,  beside,  to  dredge  many  handsome 
species  of  shells,  which  you  would  never  pick  up 
along  the  beach ;  and  if  you  are  conchologising  in 
earnest,  you  must  not  forget  to  bring  home  a  tin 
box  of  shell  sand,  to  be  washed  and  picked  over  in 
a  dish  at  your  leisure,  or  forget  either  to  wash 
through  a  fine  sieve,  over  the  boat's  side,  any  sludge 
and  ooze  which  the  dredge  brings  up.  Many, — I 
may  say,  hundreds  of  rare  and  new  shells  are  found 
in  this  way,  and  in  no  other. 


126  GLAUCUS 

But  if  you  cannot  afford  the  expense  of  your  own 
dredge  and  boat,  and  the  time  and  trouble  necessary 
to  follow  the  occupation  scientifically,  yet  every 
trawler  and  oyster-boat  will  afford  you  a  tolerable 
satisfaction.  Go  on  board  one  of  these ;  and  while 
the  trawl  is  down,  spend  a  pleasant  hour  or  two  in 
talking  with  the  simple,  honest,  sturdy  fellows  who 
work  it,  from  whom  (if  you  are  as  fortunate  as  I 
have  been  for  many  a  year  past)  you  may  get  many 
a  moving  story  of  danger  and  sorrow,  as  well  as 
many  a  shrewd  practical  maxim,  and  often,  too,  a 
living  recognition  of  God,  and  the  providence  of 
God,  which  will  send  you  home,  perhaps,  a  wiser 
and  more  genial  man.  And  when  the  trawl  is 
hauled,  wait  till  the  fish  are  counted  out,  and  packed 
away,  and  then  kneel  down  and  inspect  (in  a  pair  of 
Mackintosh  leggings,  and  your  oldest  coat)  the 
crawling  heap  of  shells  and  zoophytes,  which  re- 
mains behind  about  the  decks,  and  you  will  find,  if 
a  landsman,  enough  to  occupy  you  for  a  week  to 
come.  Nay,  even  if  it  be  too  calm  for  trawling, 
condescend  to  go  out  in  a  dingy,  and  help  to  haul 
some  honest  fellow's  deep-sea  lines  and  lobster- 
pots,  and  you  will  find  more  and  stranger  things 
about  them  than  even  fish  or  lobsters:  though 
they,  to  him  who  has  eyes  to  see,  are  strange 
enough. 

I  speak  from  experience ;  for  it  was  but  the  other 
day  that,  in  the  north  of  Devon,  I  found  sermons, 
not  indeed  in  stones,  but  in  a  creature  reputed 
among  the  most  worthless  of  sea-vermin.  I  had 
been  lounging  about  all  the  morning  on  the  little 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     127 

pier,  waiting,  with  the  rest  of  the  village,  for  a 
trawling  breeze  which  would  not  come.  Two  o'clock 
was  past,  and  still  the  red  mainsails  of  the  skiffs 
hung  motionless,  and  their  images  quivered  held 
downwards  in  the  glassy  swell. 

"  As  idle  as  a  painted  ship 
Upon  a  painted  ocean  ". 

It  was  neap-tide,  too,  and  therefore  nothing  could 
be  done  among  the  rocks.  So,  in  despair,  finding 
an  old  coast-guard  friend  starting  for  his  lobster- 
pots,  I  determined  to  save  the  old  man's  arms,  by 
rowing  him  up  the  shore ;  and  then  paddled  home- 
ward again,  under  the  high  green  northern  wall, 
five  hundred  feet  of  cliff  furred  to  the  water's  edge 
with  rich  oak  woods,  against  whose  base  the  smooth 
Atlantic  swell  died  whispering,  as  if  curling  itself 
up  to  sleep  at  last  within  that  sheltered  nook,  tired 
with  its  weary  wanderings.  The  sun  sank  lower 
and  lower  behind  the  deer-park  point ;  the  white 
stair  of  houses  up  the  glen  was  wrapt  every 
moment  deeper  and  deeper  in  hazy  smoke  and 
shade,  as  the  light  faded;  the  evening  fires  were 
lighted  one  by  one ;  the  soft  murmur  of  the  water- 
fall, and  the  pleasant  laugh  of  children,  and  the 
splash  of  homeward  oars,  came  clearer  and  clearer 
to  the  ear  at  every  stroke :  and  as  we  rowed  on, 
arose  the  recollection  of  many  a  brave  and  wise 
friend,  whose  lot  was  cast  in  no  such  western 
paradise,  but  rather  in  the  infernos  of  this  sinful 
earth,  toiling  even  then  amid  the  festering  alleys  of 
Bermondsey  and  Bethnal  Green,  to  palliate  death 


128  GLAUCUS 

and  misery  which  they  had  vainly  laboured  to  pre- 
vent, watching  the  strides  of  that  very  cholera 
which  they  had  been  striving  for  years  to  ward  off, 
now  re-admitted  in  spite  of  all  their  warnings,  by 
the  carelessness,  and  laziness,  and  greed  of  sinful 
man.  And  as  I  thought  over  the  whole  hapless 
question  of  sanatory  reform,  proved  long  since  a 
moral  duty  to  God  and  man,  possible,  easy,  even 
pecuniarily  profitable,  and  yet  left  undone ;  there 
seemed  a  sublime  irony,  most  humbling  to  man,  in 
some  of  Nature's  processes,  and  in  the  silent  and 
unobtrusive  perfection  with  which  she  has  been 
taught  to  anticipate,  since  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  some  of  the  loftiest  discoveries  of  modern 
science,  of  which  we  are  too  apt  to  boast  as  if  we 
had  created  the  method  by  discovering  its  possibility. 
Created  it  ?  Alas  for  the  pride  of  human  genius, 
and  the  autotheism  which  would  make  man  the 
measure  of  all  things,  and  the  centre  of  the  uni- 
verse !  All  the  invaluable  laws  and  methods  of 
sanatory  reform  at  best  are  but  clumsy  imitations 
of  the  unseen  wonders  which  every  animalcule  and 
leaf  have  been  working  since  the  world's  founda- 
tion ;  with  this  slight  difference  between  them  and 
us,  that  they  fulfil  their  appointed  task,  and  we 
do  not. 

The  sickly  geranium  which  spreads  its  blanched 
leaves  against  the  cellar  panes,  and  peers  up,  as  if 
imploringly,  to  the  narrow  slip  of  sunlight  at  the 
top  of  the  narrow  alley,  had  it  a  voice,  could  tell 
more  truly  than  ever  a  doctor  in  the  town,  why 
little  Bessy  sickened  of  the  scarlatina,  and  little 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     129 

Johnny  of  the  hooping-cough,  till  the  toddling  wee 
things  who  used  to  pet  and  water  it  were  carried  off 
each  and  all  of  them  one  by  one  to  the  churchyard 
sleep,  while  the  father  and  mother  sat  at  home, 
trying  to  supply  by  gin  that  very  vital  energy 
which  fresh  air  and  pure  water,  and  the  balmy 
breath  of  woods  and  heaths,  were  made  by  God  to 
give ;  and  how  the  little  geranium  did  its  best,  like 
a  heaven-sent  angel,  to  right  the  wrong  which  man's 
ignorance  had  begotten,  and  drank  in,  day  by  day, 
the  poisoned  atmosphere,  and  formed  it  into  fair 
green  leaves,  and  breathed  into  the  children's  faces 
from  every  pore,  whenever  they  bent  over  it,  the 
life-giving  oxygen  for  which  their  dulled  blood  and 
festered  lungs  were  craving  in  vain ;  fulfilling  God's 
will  itself,  though  man  would  not,  too  careless  or 
too  covetous  to  see,  after  thousands  of  years  of 
boasted  progress,  why  God  had  covered  the  earth 
with  grass,  herb,  and  tree,  a  living  and  life-giving 
garment  of  perpetual  health  and  youth. 

It  is  too  sad  to  think  long  about,  lest  we  become 
very  Heraclituses.  Let  us  take  the  other  side  of 
the  matter  with  Democritus,  try  to  laugh  man  out 
of  a  little  of  his  boastful  ignorance  and  self-satisfied 
clumsiness,  and  tell  him,  that  if  the  House  of 
Commons  would  but  summon  one  of  the  little 
Paramecia  from  any  Thames'  sewer-mouth,  to  give 
his  evidence  before  their  next  Cholera  Committee, 
sanatory  blue-books,  invaluable  as  they  are,  would 
be  superseded  for  ever  and  a  day ;  and  sanatory 
reformers  would  no  longer  have  to  confess,  that 
they  know  of  no  means  of  stopping  the  smells 


130 


GLAUCUS 


which  sometimes  drive  the  members  out  of  the 
House,  and  the  judges  out  of  Westminster  Hall. 

Nay,  in  the  boat  at  the  minute  of  which  I  have 
been  speaking,  silent  and  neglected,  sat  a  fellow- 
passenger,  who  was  a  greater  adept  at  removing 
nuisances  than  the  whole  Board  of  Health  put 
together;  and  who  had  done  his  work,  too,  with 
a  cheapness  unparalleled ;  for  all  his  good  deeds 
had  not  as  yet  cost  the  State  one  penny.  True, 
he  lived  by  his  business;  so  do  other  inspectors 
of  nuisances :  but  Nature,  instead  of  paying  Maia 
squinado,  Esquire,  some  five  hundred  pounds  ster- 
ling per  annum  for 
his  labour,  had  con- 
|  trived,  with  a  sublime 
simplicity  of  economy 
which  Mr.  Hume 
might  have  envied 
and  admired  afar  off, 
to  make  him  do  his 
work  gratis,  by  giving 
Maia  squinado  him  the  nuisances  as 

(Common  Thorn  back  Crab).          ,  .  .  ., 

his    perquisites,    and 

teaching  him  how  to  eat  them.  Certainly  (without 
going  the  length  of  the  Caribs,  who  uphold  Canni- 
balism because,  they  say,  it  makes  war  cheap,  and 
precludes  entirely  the  need  of  a  commissariat), 
this  cardinal  virtue  of  cheapness  ought  to  make 
Squinado  an  interesting  object  in  the  eyes  of  the 
present  generation;  especially  as  he  was  at  that 
moment  a  true  sanatory  martyr,  having,  like  many 
of  his  human  fellow-workers,  got  into  a  fearful 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     131 

scrape  by  meddling  with  those  existing  interests, 
and  "vested  rights  which  are  but  vested  wrongs", 
which  have  proved  fatal  already  to  more  than  one 
Board  of  Health.  For  last  night,  as  he  was  sitting 
quietly  under  a  stone  in  four  fathoms  water,  he 
became  aware  (whether  by  sight,  smell,  or  that 
mysterious  sixth  sense,  to  us  unknown,  which  seems 
to  reside  in  his  delicate  feelers)  of  a  palpable  nuis- 
ance somewhere  in  the  neighbourhood ;  and,  like  a 
trusty  servant  of  the  public,  turned  out  of  his  bed 
instantly,  and  went  in  search;  till  he  discovered, 
hanging  among  what  he  judged  to  be  the  stems  of 
oar-weed  (Laminaria),  three  or  four  large  pieces  of 
stale  thornback,  of  most  evil  savour,  and  highly 
prejudicial  to  the  purity  of  the  sea,  and  the  health  of 
the  neighbouring  herrings.  Happy  Squinado  !  He 
needed  not  to  discover  the  limits  of  his  authority, 
to  consult  any  lengthy  Nuisances  Eemoval  Act, 
with  its  clauses,  and  counter-clauses,  and  explana- 
tions of  interpretations,  and  interpretations  of  ex- 
planations. Nature,  who  can  afford  to  be  arbitary, 
because  she  is  perfect,  and  to  give  her  servants 
irresponsible  powers,  because  she  has  trained  them 
to  their  work,  had  bestowed  on  him  and  on  his 
forefathers,  as  general  health  inspectors,  those  very 
summary  powers  of  entrance  and  removal  in  the 
watery  realms  for  which  common  sense,  public 
opinion,  and  private  philanthropy,  are  still  entreat- 
ing vainly  in  the  terrestrial  realms;  so  finding  a 
hole,  in  he  went,  and  began  to  remove  the  nuisance, 
without  'waiting  twenty-four  hours',  'laying  an 
information ',  '  serving  a  notice ',  or  any  other  vain 


132  GLAUCUS 

delay.  The  evil  was  there, — and  there  it  should 
not  stay;  so  having  neither  cart  nor  barrow,  he 
just  began  putting  it  into  his  stomach,  and  in  the 
meanwhile  set  his  assistants  to  work  likewise.  For 
suppose  not,  gentle  reader,  that  Squinado  went 
alone;  in  his  train  were  more  than  a  hundred 
thousand  as  good  as  he,  each  in  his  office,  and  as 
cheaply  paid;  who  needed  no  cumbrous  baggage 
train  of  force-pumps,  hose,  chloride  of  lime  packets, 
whitewash,  pails  or  brushes,  but  were  every  man  his 
own  instrument;  and,  to  save  expense  of  transit, 
just  grew  on  Squinado's  back.  Do  you  doubt  the 
assertion  ?  Then  lift  him  up  hither,  and  putting 
him  gently  into  that  shallow  jar  of  salt-water,  look 
at  him  through  the  hand  magnifier,  and  see  how 
Nature  is  maxima  in  minimis. 

There  he  sits,  twiddling  his  feelers  (a  substitute, 
it  seems,  with  Crustacea  for  biting  their  nails  when 
they  are  puzzled),  and  by  no  means  lovely  to  look 
on  in  vulgar  eyes; — about  the  bigness  of  a  man's 
fist ;  a  round-bodied,  spindle-shanked,  crusty,  prickly, 
dirty  fellow,  with  a  villanous  squint,  too,  in  those 
little  bony  eyes,  which  never  look  for  a  moment 
both  the  same  way.  Never  mind :  many  a  man  of 
genius  is  ungainly  enough ;  and  Nature,  if  you  will 
observe,  as  if  to  make  up  to  him  for  his  uncome- 
liness,  has  has  arrayed  him  as  Solomon  in  all  his 
glory  never  was  arrayed,  and  so  fulfilled  one  of  the 
proposals  of  old  Fourier — that  scavengers,  chimney- 
sweeps, and  other  workers  in  disgusting  employ- 
ments, should  be  rewarded  for  their  self-sacrifice  in 
behalf  of  the  public  weal  by  some  peculiar  badge 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHOEE     133 

of  honour,  or  laurel  crown.  Not  that  his  crown, 
like  those  of  the  old  Greek  games,  is  a  mere  useless 
badge ;  on  the  contrary,  his  robe  of  state  is  composed 
of  his  fellow-servants.  His  whole  back  is  covered 
with  a  little  grey  forest  of  branching  hairs,  fine  as 
a  spider's  web,  each  branchlet  carrying  its  little 
pearly  ringed  club,  each  club  its  rose-crowned 
polype,  like  (to  quote  Mr.  G-osse's  comparison)  the 
unexpanded  buds  of  the  acacia  (Coryne  ramosa). 


Coryne  ramosa. 


Campanularia  Integra  (small  figure  at 
right  is  the  natural  size). 


On  that  leg  grows,  amid  another  copse  of  the 
grey  polypes,  a  delicate  straw-coloured  Sertularia, 
branch  on  branch  of  tiny  double  combs,  each  tooth 
of  the  comb  being  a  tube  containing  a  living  nower ; 
on  another  leg  another  Sertularia,  coarser,  but  still 
beautiful;  and  round  it  again  has  trained  itself, 
parasitic  on  the  parasite,  plant  upon  plant  of  glass 


134 


GLAUCUS 


ivy,  bearing  crystal  bells  (Campanularia  integra), 
each  of  which,  too,  protrudes  its  living  flower;  on 
another  leg  is  a  fresh  species,  like 
a  little  heather-bush  of  whitest 
ivory  (Crisia  eburnea),  and  every 
needle  leaf  a  polype 
cell — let  us  stop  before 
the  imagination  grows 
dizzy  with  the  con- 
templation of  those 
1  myriads  of  beautiful 
atomies.  And  what 
is  their  use  ?  Each 
living  flower,  each 

Crisia  eburnea.  c  . 

(l)Naturalsize;  PolvPe  mouth  1S  feed- 

(2)  Magnified,  ing  fast,  sweeping  into 
itself,  by  the  perpetual  currents  caused  by  the  deli- 
cate fringes  upon  its  rays  (so  minute  these  last, 
that  their  motion  only  betrays  their  presence),  each 
tiniest  atom  of  decaying  matter  in  the  surrounding 
water,  to  convert  it,  by  some  wondrous  alchemy, 
into  fresh  cells  and  buds,  and  either  build  up  a 
fresh  branch  in  their  thousand-tenanted  tree,  or 
form  an  egg-cell,  from  whence  when  ripe  may 
issue,  not  a  fixed  zoophyte,  but  a  free  swimming 
animal. 

And  in  the  meanwhile,  among  this  animal  forest 
grows  a  vegetable  one  of  delicatest  sea-weeds,  green 
and  brown  and  crimson,  whose  office  is,  by  their 
everlasting  breath,  to  reoxygenate  the  impure  water, 
and  render  it  fit  once  more  to  be  breathed  by  the 
higher  animals  who  swim  or  creep  around. 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE  SEASHORE     135 

Mystery  of  mysteries !  Let  us  jest  no  more — 
Heaven  forgive  us  if  we  have  jested  too  much  on 
so  simple  a  matter  as  that  poor  spider-crab,  taken 
out  of  the  lobster-pots,  and  left  to  die  at  the  bottom 
of  the  boat,  because  his  more  aristocratic  cousins  of 
the  blue  and  purple  armour  will  not  enter  the  trap 
while  he  is  within. 

I  am  not  aware  whether  the  surmise,  that  these 
tiny  zoophytes  help  to  purify  the  water  by  exhaling 
oxygen  gas,  has  yet  been  verified.  The  infusorial 
animalcules  do  so,  reversing  the  functions  of  animal 
life,  and  instead  of  evolving  carbonic  acid  gas,  as 
other  animals  do,  evolve  pure  oxygen.  So,  at  least, 
says  Liebig,  who  states  that  he  found  a  small  piece 
of  matchwood,  just  extinguished,  burst  out  again 
into  a  flame  on  being  immersed  in  the  bubbles 
given  out  by  these  Living  atomies. 

I  myself  should  be  inclined  to  doubt  that  this 
is  the  case  with  zoophytes,  having  found  water  in 
which  they  were  growing  (unless,  of  course,  sea- 
weeds were  present)  to  be  peculiarly  ready  to 
become  foul;  but  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether 
this  is  owing  to  their  deoxygenating  the  water 
while  alive,  like  other  animals,  or  to  the  fact  that 
it  is  very  rare  to  get  a  specimen  of  zoophyte  in 
which  a  large  number  of  the  polypes  have  not 
been  killed  in  the  transit  home,  or  at  least  so  far 
knocked  about,  that  (in  the  Anthozoa,  which  are 
far  the  most  abundant)  the  polype — or  rather  living 
mouth,  for  it  is  little  more — is  thrown  off  to  decay, 
pending  the  growth  of  a  fresh  one  in  the  same  cell. 

But   all   the  sea-weeds,  in   common  with  other 


136  GLAUCUS 

vegetables,  perform  this  function  continually,  and 
thus  maintain  the  water  in  which  they  grow  in  a 
state  fit  to  support  animal  life. 

This  fact,  first  advanced  by  Priestley  and  Ingen- 
housz,  and  though  doubted  by  the  great  Ellis, 
satisfactorily  ascertained  by  Professor  Daubeny, 
Mr.  Ward,  Dr.  Johnston,  and  Mr.  Warrington, 
gives  an  answer  to  the  question,  which  I  hope 
has  ere  now  arisen  in  the  minds  of  some  of  my 
readers — 

How  is  it  possible  to  see  these  wonders  at  home  ? 
Beautiful  and  instructive  as  they  may  be,  can  they 
be  meant  for  any  but  dwellers  by  the  sea-side  ? 
Nay  more,  even  to  them,  must  not  the  glories  of 
the  water-world  be  always  more  momentary  than 
those  of  the  rainbow,  a  mere  Fata  Morgana  which 
breaks  up  and  vanishes  before  the  eyes  ?  If  there 
were  but  some  method  of  making  a  miniature  sea- 
world  for  a  few  days ;  much  more  of  keeping  one 
with  us  when  far  inland. — 

This  desideratum  has  at  last  been  filled  up ;  and 
science  has  shown,  as  usual,  that  by  simply  obey- 
ing Nature,  we  may  conquer  her,  even  so  far  as 
to  have  our  miniature  sea,  of  artificial  salt-water, 
filled  with  living  plants  and  sea-weeds,  maintaining 
each  other  in  perfect  health,  and  each  following,  as 
far  as  is  possible  in  a  confined  space,  its  natural 
habits. 

To  Dr.  Johnston  is  due,  as  far  as  is  known,  the 
honour  of  the  first  accomplishment  of  this  as  of  a 
hundred  other  zoological  triumphs.  As  early  as 
1842,  he  proved  to  himself  the  vegetable  nature 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHOEE     137 

of  the  common  pink  Coralline,  which  fringes  every 
rock-pool,  by  keeping  it  for  eight  weeks  in  un- 
changed salt-water,  without  any  putrefaction  en- 
suing. The  ground,  of  course,  on  which  the  proof 
rested  in  this  case  was,  that  if  the  coralline  were, 
as  had  often  been  thought,  a  zoophyte,  the  water 
would  become  corrupt,  and  poisonous  to  the  life 
of  the  small  animals  in  the  same  jar;  and  that 
its  remaining  fresh  argued  that  the  coralline  had 
reoxygenated  it  from  time  to  time,  and  was  there- 
fore a  vegetable. 

In  1850,  Mr.  Robert  Warrington  communicated 
to  the  Chemical  Society  the  results  of  a  year's  ex- 
periments "  On  the  Adjustments  of  the  Relations 
between  the  Animal  and  Vegetable  Kingdoms,  by 
which  the  vital  functions  of  both  are  permanently 
maintained  ".  The  law  which  his  experiments  veri- 
fied was  the  same  as  that  on  which  Mr.  Ward,  in 
1842,  founded  his  invaluable  proposal  for  increasing 
the  purity  of  the  air  in  large  towns,  by  planting 
trees  and  cultivating  flowers  in  rooms,  that  the  ani- 
mal and  vegetable  respirations  might  counterbalance 
each  other  ;  the  animal's  blood  being  purified  by  the 
oxygen  given  off  by  the  plants,  the  plants  fed  by 
the  carbonic  acid  breathed  out  by  the  animals. 

On  the  same  principle,  Mr.  Warrington  first  kept, 
for  many  months,  in  a  vase  of  unchanged  water, 
two  small  gold  fish  and  a  plant  of  Vallisneria 
spiralis ;  and  two  years  afterwards  began  a  similar 
experiment  with  sea-water,  weeds,  and  anemones, 
which  were,  at  last,  as  successful  as  the  former  ones. 
Mr.  Gosse  had,  in  the  meanwhile,  with  tolerable 


138  GLAUCUS 

success,  begun  a  similar  method,  unaware  of  what 
Mr.  Warrington  had  done;  and  now  the  beautiful 
and  curious  exhibition  of  fresh  and  salt  water 
tanks  opened  last  year  in  the  Zoological  Gardens 
in  London,  bids  fair  to  be  copied  in  every  similar 
institution,  and  we  hope  in  many  private  houses, 
throughout  the  kingdom. 

To  this  subject  Mr.  Gosse's  last  book,  "  The 
Aquarium ",  is  principally  devoted,  though  it  con- 
tains, besides,  sketches  of  coast  scenery,  in  his  usual 
charming  style,  and  descriptions  of  rare  sea-animals, 
with  wise  and  godly  reflections  thereon.  One  great 
object  of  interest  in  the  book  is  the  last  chapter, 
which  treats  fully  of  the  making  and  stocking  these 
salt-water  aquaria;  and  the  various  beautifully 
coloured  plates,  which  are,  as  it  were,  sketches  from 
the  interior  of  tanks,  are  well  fitted  to  excite  the 
desire  of  all  readers  to  possess  such  gorgeous  living 
pictures,  if  as  nothing  else,  still  as  drawing-room 
ornaments,  flower-gardens  which  never  wither,  fairy 
lakes  of  perpetual  calm  which  no  storm  blackens — 

OVT  iv  6tpei,  OVT  £v  dirupy. 

Those  who  have  never  seen  one  of  them  can  never 
imagine  (and  neither  Mr.  Gosse's  pencil  nor  our 
clumsy  words  can  ever  describe  to  them)  the  gor- 
geous colouring  and  the  grace  and  delicacy  of  form 
which  these  subaqueous  landscapes  exhibit. 

As  for  colouring — the  only  bit  of  colour  which 
I  can  remember  even  faintly  resembling  them  (for 
though  Correggio's  Magdalene  may  rival  them  in 
greens  and  blues,  yet  even  he  has  no  such  crimsons 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     139 

and  purples)  is  the  Adoration  of  the  Shepherds,  by 
that  '  prince  of  chlorists ',  Palma  Vecchio,  which 
hangs  on  the  left-hand  side  of  Lord  Ellesmere's 
great  gallery.  But  as  for  the  forms — where  shall 
we  see  their  like  ?  Where,  amid  miniature  forests 
as  fantastic  as  those  of  the  tropics,  animals  whose 
shapes  outvie  the  wildest  dreams  of  the  old  German 
ghost  painters  which  cover  the  walls  of  the  galleries 
of  Brussels  or  Antwerp  ?  And  yet  the  uncouthest 
has  some  quaint  beauty  of  its  own,  while  most — the 
star-fishes  and  anemones,  for  example — are  nothing 
but  beauty.  The  brilliant  plates  in  Mr.  G-osse's 
"  Aquarium  "  give,  after  all,  but  a  meagre  picture  of 
the  reality,  as  it  may  be  seen  either  in  his  study,  or 
in  the  tank-house  at  the  Zoological  Gardens ;  and  as 
it  may  be  seen  also,  by  any  one  who  will  follow 
carefully  the  directions  given  at  the  end  of  his  book, 
stock  a  glass  vase  with  such  common  things  as  he 
may  find  in  an  hour's  search  at  low-tide,  and  so  have 
an  opportunity  of  seeing  how  truly  Mr.  Gosse  says, 
in  his  valuable  preface,  that 

"The  habits"  (and  he  might  well  have  added, 
the  marvellous  beauty)  "of  animals  will  never  be 
thoroughly  known  till  they  are  observed  in  detail. 
Nor  is  it  sufficient  to  mark  them  with  attention 
now  and  then ;  they  must  be  closely  watched,  their 
various  actions  carefully  noted,  their  behaviour  un- 
der different  circumstances,  and  especially  those 
movements  which  seem  to  us  mere  vagaries,  un- 
directed by  any  suggestible  motive  or  cause,  well 
examined.  A  rich  fruit  of  result,  often  new  and 
curious  and  unexpected,  will,  I  am  sure,  reward  any 


140  '        GLAUCUS 

one  who  studies  living  animals  in  this  way.  The 
most  interesting  parts,  by  far,  of  published  Natural 
History  are  those  minute,  but  graphic  particulars, 
which  have  been  gathered  up  by  an  attentive 
watching  of  individual  animals". 

Mr.  Gosse's  own  books,  certainly,  give  proof 
enough  of  this.  We  need  only  direct  the  reader  to 
his  exquisitely  humorous  account  of  the  ways  and 
works  of  a  captive  soldier-crab,  to  show  them  how 
much  there  is  to  be  seen,  and  how  full  Nature  is 
also  of  that  ludicrous  element  of  which  we  spoke 
above.  And,  indeed,  it  is  in  this  form  of  Natural 
History :  not  in  mere  classification,  and  the  finding 
out  of  names,  and  quarrelings  as  to  the  first  dis- 
covery of  that  beetle  or  this  butter -cup, — too 
common,  alas !  among  mere  closet-collectors — "  end- 
less genealogies",  to  apply  St.  Paul's  words  by  no 
means  irreverently  or  fancifully,  "  which  do  but 
gender  strife" — not  in  these  pedantries  is  that 
moral  training  to  be  found,  for  which  we  have 
been  lauding  the  study  of  Natural  History:  but 
in  healthful  walks  and  voyages  out  of  doors,  and 
in  careful  and  patient  watching  of  the  living  ani- 
mals and  plants  at  home,  with  an  observation 
sharpened  by  practice,  and  a  temper  calmed  by  the 
continual  practice  of  the  naturalist's  first  virtues 
— patience  and  perseverance. 

Practical  directions  for  forming  an  aquarium  may 
be  found  in  Mr.  Gosse's  book  bearing  that  name, 
and  those  who  wish  to  carry  out  the  notion 
thoroughly,  cannot  do  better  than  buy  his  book, 
and  take  their  choice  of  the  many  different  forms 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE   SEA-SHORE     141 

of  vase,  with  rockwork,  fountains,  and  other  pretty 
devices  which  he  describes. 

But  the  many,  even  if  they  have  Mr.  G-osse's 
book,  will  be  rather  inclined  to  begin  with  a  small 
attempt ;  especially  as  they  are  probably  half  scep- 
tical of  the  possibility  of  keeping  sea -animals 
inland  without  changing  the  water.  A  few  simple 
directions,  therefore,  will  not  come  amiss  here. 
They  shall  be  such  as  any  one  can  put  into  practice, 
who  goes  down  to  stay  in  a  lodging-house  at  the 
most  cockney  of  watering-places. 

Buy  at  any  glass-shop  a  cylindrical  glass  jar,  some 
six  inches  in  diameter  and  ten  high,  which  will  cost 
you  from  three  to  four  shillings ;  wash  it  clean,  and 
fill  it  with  clean  salt  water,  dipped  out  of  any  pool 
among  the  rocks,  only  looking  first  to  see  that  there 
is  no  dead  fish  or  other  evil  matter  in  the  said  pool, 
and  that  no  stream  from  the  land  runs  into  it.  If 
you  choose  to  take  the  trouble  to  dip  up  the  water 
over  a  boat's  side,  so  much  the  better. 

So  much  for  your  vase ;  now  to  stock  it. 

Go  down  at  low  spring- tide  to  the  nearest  ledge 
of  rocks,  and  with  a  hammer  and  chisel  chip  off  a 
few  pieces  of  stone  covered  with  growing  sea-weed. 
Avoid  the  common  and  coarser  kinds  (fuci)  which 
cover  the  surface  of  the  rocks ;  for  they  give  out 
under  water  a  slime  which  will  foul  your  tank :  but 
choose  the  more  delicate  species  which  fringe  the 
edges  of  every  pool  at  low-water  mark;  the  pink 
coralline,  the  dark  purple  ragged  dulse  (Rhody- 
menia),  the  Carrageen  moss  (Chondrus),  and  above 
all,  the  commonest  of  all,  the  delicate  green  Ulva, 


142  GLAUCUS 

which  you  will  see  growing  everywhere  in  wrinkled 
fan-shaped  sheets,  as  thin  as  the  finest  silver-paper. 
The  smallest  bits  of  stone  are  sufficient,  provided 
the  sea-weeds  have  hold  of  them ;  for  they  have  no 
real  roots,  but  adhere  by  a  small  disc,  deriving  no 
nourishment  from  the  rock,  but  only  from  the 
water.  Take  care,  meanwhile,  that  there  be  as 
little  as  possible  on  the  stone,  beside  the  weed 
itself.  Especially  scrape  off  any  small  sponges,  and 
see  that  no  worms  have  made  their  twining  tubes 
of  sand  among  the  weed-stems  ;  if  they  have,  drag 
them  out;  for  they  will  surely  die,  and  as  surely 
spoil  all  by  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  blackness,  and 
evil  smells. 

Put  your  weeds  into  your  tank,  and  settle  them 
at  the  bottom;  which  last,  some  say,  should  be 
covered  with  a  layer  of  pebbles :  but  let  the  be- 
ginner leave  it  as  bare  as  possible ;  for  the  pebbles 
only  tempt  cross-grained  annelids  to  crawl  under 
them,  die,  and  spoil  all  by  decaying :  whereas  if  the 
bottom  of  the  vase  is  bare,  you  can  see  a  sickly  or 
dead  inhabitant  at  once,  and  take  him  out  (which 
you  must  do)  instantly.  Let  your  weeds  stand 
quietly  in  the  vase  a  day  or  two  before  you  put  in 
any  live  animals;  and  even  then,  do  not  put  any 
in  if  the  water  does  not  appear  perfectly  clear: 
but  lift  out  the  weeds,  and  renew  the  water  ere  you 
replace  them. 

Now  for  the  live  stock.  In  the  crannies  of  every 
rock  you  will  find  sea-anemones  (Actiniae);  and  a 
dozen  of  these  only  will  be  enough  to  convert  your 
little  vase  into  the  most  brilliant  of  living  flower- 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     143 

gardens.  There  they  hang  upon  the  under  side  of 
the  ledges,  apparently  mere  rounded  lumps  of  jelly : 
one  is  of  dark  purple  dotted  with  green ;  another  of 
a  rich  chocolate;  another  of  a  delicate  olive;  another 
sienna-yellow ;  another  all  but  white.  Take  them 
from  their  rock ;  you  can  do  it  easily  by  slipping 
under  them  your  finger-nail,  or  the  edge  of  a  pewter 
spoon.  Take  care  to  tear  the  sucking  base  as  little 
as  possible  (though  a  small  rent  they  will  darn  for 
themselves  in  a  few  days,  easily  enough),  and  drop 
them  into  a  basket  of  wet  sea- weed ;  when  you  get 
home,  turn  them  into  a  dish  full  of  water  and 
leave  them  for  the  night,  and  go  to  look  at  them 
to-morrow.  What  a  change!  The  dull  lumps  of 
jelly  have  taken  root  and  flowered  during  the  night, 
and  your  dish  is  filled  from  side  to  side  with  a 
bouquet  of  chrysanthemums;  each  has  expanded 
into  a  hundred-petalled  flower,  crimson,  pink,  purple, 
or  orange ;  touch  one,  and  it  shrinks  together  like 
a  sensitive  plant,  displaying  at  the  root  of  the 
petals  a  ring  of  brilliant  turquoise  beads.  That  is 
the  commonest 
of  all  the  Ac- 
tiniae (Mesem- 
bryanthemum)  ; 
you  may  have 
him  When  and  Actinia  mesembryanthemum. 

where  you  will :  but  if  you  will  search  those  rocks 
somewhat  closer,  you  will  find  even  more  gorgeous 
species  than  him.  See  in  that  pool  some  dozen 
noble  ones,  in  full  bloom,  and  quite  six  inches 
across,  some  of  them.  If  their  cousins  whom  we 


144 


GLAUCUS 


found  just  now  were  like  chrysanthemums,  these 
are  like  quilled  dahlias.  Their  arms  are  stouter 
and  shorter  in  proportion  than  those  of  the  last 
species,  but  their  colour  is  equally  brilliant.  One 
is  a  brilliant  blood-red ;  another  a  delicate  sea-blue 
striped  with  pink ;  but  most  have  the  disc  and  the 
innumerable  arms  striped  and  ringed  with  various 
shades  of  grey  and  brown.  Shall  we  get  them  ? 
By  all  means  if  we  can.  Touch  one.  Where  is  he 
now  ?  Gone  ?  Vanished  into  air,  or  into  stone  ? 
Not  quite.  You  see  that  knot  of  sand  and  broken 
shell  lying  on  the  rock,  where  your  dahlia  was 
one  moment  ago.  Touch  it,  and  you  will  find  it 
leathery  and  elastic.  That  is  all  which  remains  of 
the  live  dahlia.  Never  mind ;  get  your  finger  into 
the  crack  under  him,  work  him  gently  but  firmly 
out,  and  take  him  home,  and  he  will  be  as  happy 
and  as  gorgeous  as  ever  to-morrow. 


Actinia  crassicornis. 


THE  WONDERS   OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     145 

Let  your  Actiniae  stand  for  a  day  or  two  in  the 
dish,  and  then,  picking  out  the  liveliest  and  hand- 
somest, detach  them  once  more  from  their  hold, 
drop  them  into  your  vase,  right  them  with  a  bit  of 
stick,  so  that  the  sucking  base  is  downwards,  and 
leave  them  to  themselves  thenceforth. 

These  two  species  (mesernbryanthemum  and  cras- 
sicornis)  are  quite  beautiful  enough  to  give  a  beginner 
amusement :  but  there  are  two  others  which  are  not 
uncommon,  and  of  such  exceeding  loveliness,  that 
it  is  worth  while  to  take  a  little  trouble  to  get 
them.  The  one  is  Dianthus,  which  I  have  already 
mentioned ;  the  other 
Bellis,  the  sea-daisy, 
of  which  there  is  an 
excellent  description 
and  plates  in  Mr. 
Gosse's  "  Eambles  in 
Devon  ". 

It    is    common    at 
Ilfracombe,     and     at 

m  1-in  Actinia  bellis. 

Torquay ;  and  indeed 

everywhere  where  there  are  cracks  and  small 
holes  in  limestone  or  slate  rock.  In  these  holes 
it  fixes  its  base,  and  expands  its  delicate  brown- 
grey  star-like  flowers  on  the  surface ;  but  it 
must  be  chipped  out  with  hammer  and  chisel,  at 
the  expense  of  much  dirt  and  patience ;  for  the 
moment  it  is  touched  it  contracts  deep  into  the 
rock,  and  all  that  is  left  of  the  daisy  flower,  some 
two  or  three  inches  across,  is  a  blue  knot  of  half 
the  size  of  a  marble.  But  it  will  expand  again, 


146  GLAUCUS 

after  a  day  or  two  of  captivity,  and  will  repay  all 
the  trouble  which  it  has  cost.  Troglodytes  may 
be  found,  as  I  have  said  already,  in  hundreds  at 
Hastings,  in  similar  situations  to  that  of  Bellis ;  its 
only  token,  when  the  tide  is  down,  being  a  round 
dimple  in  the  muddy  sand  which  fills  the  lower 
cracks  of  rocks. 

But  you  will  want  more  than  these  anemones, 
both  for  your  own  amusement,  and  for  the  health 
of  your  tank.  Microscopic  animals  will  breed,  and 
will  also  die;  and  you  need  for  them  some  such 
scavenger  as  our  poor  friend  Squinado,  to  whom 
you  were  introduced  a  few  pages  back.  Turn,  then, 
a  few  stones  which  lie  piled  on  each  other  at  ex- 
treme low- water  mark,  and  five  minutes'  search  will 
give  you  the  very  animal  you  want — a  little  crab, 
of  a  dingy  russet  above,  and  on  the  under  side  like 
smooth  porcelain.  His  back  is  quite  flat,  and  so  are 
his  large  angular  fringed  claws,  which,  when  he 
folds  them  up,  lie  in  the  same  plane  with  his  shell, 
and  fit  neatly  into  its  edges.  Compact  little  rogue 
that  he  is,  made  especially  for  sideling  in  and  out  of 
cracks  and  cannies,  he  carries  with  him  such  an 
apparatus  of  combs  and  brushes  as  Isidor  or  Floris 
never  dreamed  of ;  with  which  he  sweeps  out  of  the 
sea-water  at  every  moment  shoals  of  minute  ani- 
malcules, and  sucks  them  into  his  tiny  mouth.  Mr. 
Gosse  will  tell  you  more  of  this  marvel,  in  his 
"  Aquarium  ". 

Next,  your  sea-weeds,  if  they  thrive  as  they 
ought  to  do,  will  sow  their  minute  spores  in  millions 
around  them ;  and  these  as  they  vegetate,  will  form 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     147 


a  green  film  on  the  inside  of  the  glass,  spoiling 
your  prospect ;  you  may  rub  it  off  for  yourself,  if 
you  will,  with  a  rag  fastened  to  a  stick,  but  if  you 
wish  at  once  to  save  yourself  trouble,  and  to  see 
how  all  emergencies  in  nature  are  provided  for,  you 
will  set  three  or  four  live  shells  to  do  it  for  you, 
and  to  keep  your  subaqueous  lawn  close  mown. 

That  last  word  is  no  figure  of  speech.  Look 
among  the  beds  of  sea-weed  for  a  few  of  the  bright 
yellow  or  green  sea-snails 
(Nerita),  or  Conical  Tops 
(Trochus),  especially  that 
beautiful  pink  one  spotted 
with  brown  (Ziziphinus), 
which  you  are  sure  to  find 
about  shaded  rock -ledges 
at  dead  low  tide,  and  put 
them  into  your  aquarium. 
For  the  present,  they  will 
only  nibble  the  green  ulvse, 
but  when  the  film  of  young 
weed  begins  to  form,  you 
will  see  it  mown  off  every 
morning  as  fast  as  it  grows,  in  little  semi-circular 
sweeps,  just  as  if  a  fairy's  scythe  had  been  at  work 
during  the  night. 

And  a  scythe  has  been  at  work ;  none  other  than 
the  tongue  of  the  little  shell-fish ;  a  description  of 
its  extraordinary  mechanism  (too  long  to  quote  here, 
but  which  is  well  worth  reading)  may  be  found  in 
Gosse's  "  Aquarium  ". 

A  prawn  or  two  and  a  few  minute  star-fish  will 


(1)  Nerita  polita ; 

(2)  N.  pulligera 


148  GLAUCUS 

make  your  aquarium  complete;  though  you  may 
add  to  it  endlessly,  as  one  glance  at  the  salt-water 
tanks  of  the  Zoological  Gardens,  and  the  strange 
and  beautiful  forms  which  they  contain,  will  prove 
to  you  sufficiently. 


Trochus  ziziphinus. 


You  have  two  more  enemies  to  guard  against; 
dust,  and  heat.  If  the  surface  of  the  water  becomes 
clogged  with  dust,  the  communication  between  it 
and  the  life-giving  oxygen  of  the  air  is  cut  off;  and 
then  your  animals  are  liable  to  die,  for  the  very 
same  reason  that  fish  die  in  a  pond  which  is  long 
frozen  over,  unless  a  hole  be  broken  in  the  ice  to 
admit  the  air.  You  must  guard  against  this  by 
occasional  stirring  of  the  surface  (it  should  be  done 
once  a  day,  if  possible)  and  by  keeping  on  a  cover. 
A  piece  of  muslin  tied  over  will  do ;  but  a  better 
defence  is  a  plate  of  glass,  raised  on  wire  some 
half-inch  above  the  edge,  so  as  to  admit  the  air.  I 
am  not  sure  that  a  sheet  of  brown  paper  laid  over 
the  vase  is  not  the  best  of  all,  because  that,  by  its 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     149 

shade,  also  guards  against  the  next  evil,  which  is 
heat.  Against  that  you  must  guard  by  putting  a 
curtain  of  muslin  or  oiled  paper  between  the  vase 
and  the  sun,  if  it  be  very  fierce,  or  simply  (for 
simple  expedients  are  best)  by  laying  a  handker- 
chief over  it  till  the  heat  is  past.  But  if  you  leave 
your  vase  in  a  sunny  window  long  enough  to  let  the 
water  get  tepid,  all  is  over  with  your  pets.  Half 
an  hour's  boiling  may  frustrate  the  care  of  weeks. 
And  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  light  you  must  have, 
and  you  can  hardly  have  too  much.  Some  animals 
certainly  prefer  shade,  and  hide  in  the  darkest 
crannies ;  and  for  them,  if  your  aquarium  is  large 
enough,  you  must  provide  shade,  by  arranging  the 
bits  of  stone  into  piles  and  caverns.  But  without 
light,  your  sea-weeds  will  neither  thrive  nor  keep 
the  water  sweet.  With  plenty  of  light  you  will 
see,  to  quote  Mr.  Gosse  once  more,  "  thousands  of 
tiny  globules  forming  on  every  plant,  and  even  all 
over  the  stones,  where  the  infant  vegetation  is 
beginning  to  grow ;  and  these  globules  presently 
rise  in  rapid  succession  to  the  surface  all  over  the 
vessel,  and  this  process  goes  on  uninterruptedly  as 
long  as  the  rays  of  the  sun  are  uninterrupted. 

"  Now  these  globules  consist  of  pure  oxygen,  given 
out  by  the  plants  under  the  stimulus  of  light ;  and 
to  this  oxygen  the  animals  in  the  tank  owe  their 
life.  The  difference  between  the  profusion  of  oxy- 
gen-bubbles produced  on  a  sunny  day,  and  the 
paucity  of  those  seen  on  a  dark  cloudy  day,  or  in  a 
northern  aspect,  is  very  marked".  Choose,  there- 
fore, a  south  or  east  window,  but  draw  down  the 


150  GLAUCUS 

blind,  or  throw  a  handkerchief  over  all  if  the  heat 
become  fierce.  The  water  should  always  feel  cold 
to  your  hand,  let  the  temperature  outside  be  what 
it  may. 

Next,  you  must  make  up  for  evaporation  by  fresh 
water  (a  very  little  will  suffice),  as  often  as  in  sum- 
mer you  find  the  water  in  your  vase  sink  below  its 
original  level,  and  prevent  the  water  from  getting 
too  salt.  For  the  salts,  remember,  do  not  evapo- 
rate with  the  water;  and  if  you  left  the  vase  in 
the  sun  for  a  few  weeks,  it  would  become  a  mere 
brine-pan. 

But  how  will  you  move  your  treasures  up  to 
town? 

The  simplest  plan  which  I  have  found  successful 
is  an  earthen  jar.  You  may  buy  them  with  a  cover 
which  screws  on  with  two  iron  clasps.  If  you  do 
not  find  such,  a  piece  of  oilskin  tied  over  the  mouth 
is  enough.  But  do  not  fill  the  jar  full  of  water; 
leave  about  a  quarter  of  the  contents  in  empty  air, 
which  the  water  may  absorb,  and  so  keep  itself 
fresh.  And  any  pieces  of  stone,  or  oysters,  which 
you  send  up,  hang  by  a  string  from  the  mouth,  that 
they  may  not  hurt  tender  animals  by  rolling  about 
the  bottom.  With  these  simple  precautions,  any- 
thing which  you  are  likely  to  find  will  well  endure 
forty-eight  hours  of  travel. 

What  if  the  water  fails  after  all  ? 

Then  Mr.  Gosse's  artificial  sea-water  will  form  a 
perfect  substitute.  You  may  buy  the  requisite  salts 
(for  there  are  more  salts  than  "  salt "  in  sea-water) 
from  any  chemist  to  whom  Mr.  Gosse  has  entrusted 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     151 

his  discovery,  and,  according  to  his  directions,  make 
sea-water  for  yourself. 

One  more  hint  before  we  part.  If,  after  all,  you 
are  not  going  down  to  the  sea- side  this  year,  and 
have  no  opportunities  of  testing  "  the  wonders  of 
the  shore  ",  you  may  still  study  Natural  History  in 
your  own  drawing-room,  by  looking  a  little  into 
"  the  wonders  of  the  pond  ". 

I  am  not  jesting ;  a  fresh-water  aquarium,  though 
by  no  means  as  beautiful  as  a  salt-water  one,  is  even 
more  easily  established.  A  glass  jar,  floored  with 
two  or  three  inches  of  pond-mud  (which  should  be 
covered  with  fine  gravel  to  prevent  the  mud  wash- 
ing up) ;  a  specimen  of  each  of  two  water-plants 
which  you  may  buy  now  at  any  good  shop  in  Covent 
Garden,  Vallisneria  spiralis  (which  is  said  to  give  to 
the  Canvas-backed  duck  of  America  its  peculiar 
richness  of  flavour),  and  Anacharis  alsinastrum,  that 
magical  weed  which,  lately  introduced  from  Canada 
among  timber,  has  multiplied,  self-sown,  to  so  pro- 
digious an  extent,  that  it  bids  fair,  in  a  few  years, 
to  choke  the  navigation  not  only  of  our  canals  and 
fen-rivers,  but  of  the  Thames  itself1;  or,  in  default 
of  these,  some  of  the  more  delicate  pond  weeds ; 
such  as  Callitriche,  Potamogeton  pusillum,  and,  best 
of  all,  perhaps,  the  beautiful  Water-Milfoil  (Myrio- 
phyllium),  whose  comb-like  leaves  are  the  haunt  of 

1  But  if  any  young  lady,  her  aquarium  having  failed,  shall  (as 
dozens  do)  cast  out  the  same  Anacharis  into  the  nearest  ditch,  she 
shall  be  followed  to  her  grave  by  the  maledictions  of  all  millers 
and  trout  fishers.  Seriously,  this  is  a  wanton  act  of  injury  to  the 
neighbouring  streams,  which  must  be  carefully  guarded  against. 
As  well  turn  loose  queen-wasps  to  build  in  your  neighbour's 
banks. 


152  GLAUCUS 

numberless  rare  and  curious  animalcules : — these 
(in  themselves,  from  the  transparency  of  their 
circulation,  interesting  microscopic  objects)  for  oxy- 
gen-breeding vegetables ;  and  for  animals,  the  pick- 
ings of  any  pond ;  a  minnow  or  two,  an  eft ;  a  few 
of  the  delicate  pond-snails  (unless  they  devour 
your  plants  too  rapidly);  water-beetles,  of  activity 
inconceivable,  and  that  wondrous  bug  the  Notonecta, 
who  lies  on  his  back  all  day,  rowing  about  his  boat- 
shaped  body,  with  one  long  pair  of  oars,  in  search 
of  animalcules,  and  the  moment  the  lights  are  out, 
turns  head  over  heels,  rights  himself,  and  opening  a 
pair  of  handsome  wings,  starts  to  fly  about  the  dark 
room  in  company  with  his  friend  the  water-beetle, 
and  (I  suspect)  catch  flies;  and  then  slips  back 
demurely  into  the  water  with  the  first  streak  of 
dawn.  But  perhaps  the  most  interesting  of  all  the 
tribes  of  the  Naiads  (in  default,  of  course,  of  those 
semi -human  nymphs  with  which  our  Teutonic 
forefathers,  like  the  Greeks,  peopled  each  'sacred 
fountain ')  are  the  little  '  water-crickets ',  which 
may  be  found  running  under  the  pebbles,  or  burrow- 
ing in  little  galleries  in  the  banks;  and  those 
'caddises',  which  crawl  on  the  bottom  in  the 
stiller  waters,  inclosed,  all  save  the  head  and  legs, 
in  a  tube  of  sand  or  pebbles,  shells  or  sticks,  green 
or  dead  weeds,  often  arranged  with  quaint  sym- 
metry, or  of  very  graceful  shape.  Their  aspect  in 
this  state  may  be  somewhat  uninviting,  but  they 
compensate  for  their  youthful  ugliness  by  the 
strangeness  of  their  transformations,  and  often  by 
the  delicate  beauty  of  the  perfect  insects,  as  the 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE   SEA-SHORE     153 

'caddises',  rising  to  the  surface,  become  flying 
Phryganese  (caperers  and  sand-flies),  generally  of 
various  shades  of  fawn-colour ;  and  the  water- 
crickets  (though  an  unscientific  eye  may  be  able  to 
discern  but  little  difference  in  them  in  the  '  larva ', 
or  imperfect  state)  change  into  flies  of  the  most 
various  shapes ; — one,  perhaps,  into  the  great  slug- 
gish olive  Stone-fly  (Perla  bicaudata) ;  another  into 
the  delicate  lemon-coloured  Yellow  Sally  (Chryso- 
perla  viridis) ;  another  into  the  dark  chocolate  Alder 
(Sialis  lutaria) ;  and  the  majority  into  duns  and 
drakes  (Ephemerae);  whose  grace  of  form,  and 
delicacy  of  colour,  give  them  a  right  to  rank  among 
the  most  exquisite  of  God's  creations,  from  the  tiny 
Spinner  (Baetis)  of  iridescent  glass,  with  gorgeous 
rainbow-coloured  eyes,  to  the  great  Green  Drake 
(Ephemera  vulgata),  known  to  all  fishermen  as  the 
prince  of  trout-flies.  These  animals,  their  habits, 
their  miraculous  transformations,  might  give  many 
an  hour's  quiet  amusement  to  an  invalid,  laid  on  a 
sofa,  or  imprisoned  in  a  sick-room,  and  debarred 
from  reading,  unless  by  some  such  means,  any  page 
of  that  great  green  book  outside,  whose  pen  is  the 
finger  of  God,  whose  covers  are  the  fire  kingdoms 
and  the  star  kingdoms,  and  its  leaves  the  heather- 
bells,  and  the  polypes  of  the  sea,  and  the  gnats 
above  the  summer  stream. 

I  said  just  now  that  happy  was  the  sportsman 
who  was  also  a  naturalist.  And,  having  once  men- 
tioned these  curious  water-flies,  I  cannot  help  going 
a  little  farther,  and  saying,  that  lucky  is  the  fisher- 
man who  is  also  a  naturalist.  A  fair  scientific 


154  GLAUCUS 

knowledge  of  the  flies  which  he  imitates,  and  of 
their  habits,  would  often  ensure  him  sport,  while 
other  men  are  going  home  with  empty  creels.  One 
would  have  fancied  this  a  self-evident  fact ;  yet  I 
have  never  found  any  sound  knowledge  of  the 
natural  water-flies  which  haunt  a  given  stream, 
except  among  cunning  old  fishermen  of  the  lower 
class,  who  get  their  living  by  the  gentle  art,  and 
bring  to  inn-doors  baskets  of  trout  killed  on  flies, 
which  look  as  if  they  had  been  tied  with  a  pair  of 
tongs,  so  rough  and  ungainly  are  they ;  and  which, 
nevertheless,  kill,  simply  because  they  are  (in  colour, 
which  is  all  that  fish  really  care  for)  exact  like- 
nesses of  some  obscure  local  species,  which  happens 
to  lie  on  the  water  at  the  time.  Among  gentlemen- 
fishermen,  on  the  other  hand,  so  deep  is  the  ignor- 
ance of  the  natural  fly,  that  I  have  known  good 
sportsman  still  under  the  delusion  that  the  great 
green  May-fly  comes  out  of  a  caddis-bait;  the 
gentlemen  having  never  seen,  much  less  fished 
with,  that  most  deadly  bait  the  Water-cricket,  or 
free  creeping  larva  of  the  May-fly,  which  may  be 
found  in  May  under  the  river-banks.  The  con- 
sequence of  this  ignorance  is,  that  they  depend  for 
good  patterns  of  flies  on  mere  chance  and  experi- 
ment ;  and  that  the  shop  patterns,  originally  excel- 
lent, deteriorate  continually,  till  little  or  no  likeness 
to  their  living  prototype  remains,  being  tied  by 
town  girls,  who  have  no  more  understanding  of 
what  the  feathers  and  mohair  in  their  hands  re- 
present than  they  have  of  what  the  National  Debt 
represents.  Hence  follows  many  a  failure  at  the 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE  SEA-SHORE     155 

stream-side;  because  the  Caperer,  or  Dun,  or  Yellow 
Sally,  which  is  produced  from  the  fly-book,  though, 
possibly,  like  the  brood  which  came  out  three  years 
since  on  some  stream  a  hundred  miles  away,  is  quite 
unlike  the  brood  which  is  out  to-day  on  one's  own 
river.  For  not  only  do  most  of  these  flies  vary  in 
colour  in  different  soils  and  climates,  but  many  of 
them  change  their  hue  during  life :  the  Ephemerae, 
especially,  have  a  habit  of  throwing  off  the  whole 
of  their  skins  (even,  marvellously  enough,  to  the 
skin  of  the  eyes  and  wings,  and  the  delicate 
'  whisks '  at  their  tail),  and  appearing  in  an  utterly 
new  garb  after  ten  minutes'  rest,  to  the  discomfiture 
of  the  astonished  angler. 

The  natural  history  of  these  flies,  I  understand 
from  Mr.  Stainton  (one  of  our  most  distinguished 
entomologists),  has  not  yet  been  worked  out,  at 
least  for  England.  The  only  attempt,  I  believe, 
in  that  direction  is  one  made  by  a  charming  book, 
"  The  Fly-fisher's  Entomology  ",  which  should  be  in 
every  good  angler's  library;  but  why  should  not 
a  few  fishermen  combine  to  work  out  the  subject 
for  themselves,  and  study  for  the  interests  both  of 
science  and  their  own  sport  the  'Wonders  of  the 
Bank '  ?  The  work,  petty  as  it  may  seem,  is  much 
too  great  for  one  man,  so  prodigal  is  Nature  of  her 
forms,  in  the  stream  as  in  the  ocean ;  but  what  if  a 
correspondence  were  opened  between  a  few  fishermen 
— of  whom  one  should  live,  say,  by  the  Hampshire 
or  Berkshire  chalk-streams ;  another  on  the  slates 
and  granites  of  Devon ;  another  on  the  limestones 
of  Yorkshire  or  Derbyshire  ;  another  among  the  yet 


156  GLAUCTJS 

earlier  slates  of  Snowdonia,  or  some  mountain  part 
of  Wales ;  and  more  than  one  among  the  hills  of 
the  Border  and  the  lakes  of  the  Highlands.  Each 
would  find  (I  suspect),  on  comparing  his  insects 
with  those  of  the  others,  that  he  was  exploring  a 
little  peculiar  world  of  his  own,  and  that  with  the 
exception  of  a  certain  number  of  typical  forms,  the 
flies  of  his  county  were  unknown  a  hundred  miles 
away,  or,  at  least,  appeared  there  under  great  differ- 
ences of  size  and  colour;  and  each,  if  he  would 
take  the  trouble  to  collect  the  caddises  and  water- 
crickets,  and  breed  them  into  the  perfect  fly  in  an 
aquarium,  would  see  marvels  in  their  transforma- 
tions, their  instincts,  their  anatomy,  quite  as  great 
(though  not,  perhaps,  as  showy  and  startling)  as  I 
have  been  trying  to  point  out  on  the  sea-shore. 
Moreover,  each  and  every  one  of  the  party,  I  will 
warrant,  will  find  his  fellow-correspondents  (perhaps 
previously  unknown  to  him)  men  worth  knowing ; 
not,  it  may  be,  of  the  meditative  and  half-saintly 
type  of  dear  old  Izaak  Walton  (who,  after  all,  was 
no  fly-fisher,  but  a  sedentary  'popjoy',  guilty  of 
float  and  worm),  but  rather,  like  his  fly-fishing  dis- 
ciple Cotton,  good  fellows  and  men  of  the  world, 
and  perhaps  something  better  over  and  above. 

The  suggestion  has  been  made.  Will  it  ever  be 
taken  up,  and  a  '  Naiad  Club '  formed,  for  the  com- 
bination of  sport  and  science  ? 


And  so  I  end  this  little  book,  hoping,  even  pray- 
ing, that  it  may  encourage  a  few  more  labourers  to 


THE  WONDERS  OF  THE  SEA -SHORE     157 

go  forth  into  a  vineyard,  which  those  who  have 
toiled  in  it  know  to  be  full  of  ever-fresh  health, 
and  wonder,  and  simple  joy,  and  the  presence  and 
the  glory  of  Him  whose  name  is  Love. 


Five-finger  Star-fish  (Uraster  rubens). 


LIST  OF  MODEEN  BOOKS  KECOMMENDED 

GENERAL  ZOOLOGY. 
Introductory. 

McALiSTER(A.)    Invertebrata  ;  Vertebrata  ;  ill.  Ea.  Is.  6d.    Longmans. 

Together  form  a  good,  short  sketch  of  the  science  of  Zoology,  and  serve  as 
an  excellent  introduction. 
NEWTON  (A.)    Primer  of  Zoology ;  ill.  Is.    S.P.C.K. 

Systematic  and  Comprehensive  Text-Books. 

Cambridge  Natural  History.  Ea.  17s.  net.  '  Macmillan. 

In  course  of  publication,  each  department  of  Zoology  being  treated  by  a 
competent  specialist.    An  important  series  of  monographs. 
GLAUS  AND  SEDOWICK.    Elementary  Text-Book  of  Zoology.    2  v. ;  706  ill. 

21s.,  16s.    Sonnenschein. 

Indispensable  for  the  study  of  morphology  and  classification. 
PARKER  AND  HASWELL.  Text-Book  of  Zoology.  2  v. ;  ill.     36s.  net.   Macmillan. 
SEDOWICK  (A.)    Student's  Text-Book  of  Zoology,  vol.  i.  ;  fully  ill. 

A  revision  of  Claus  and  Sedgwick  above.    When  completed,  will  replace 

Glaus  and  Sedgwick.  18s.    Sonnenschein. 

THOMSON  (J.  A.)    Outlines  of  Zoology.    32  pi.  12*.  6d.    Pentland. 

POPULAR. 
Cassell's  New  Natural  History,  ed.  by  Dr.  P.  M.  Duncan.    6  v. ;  2,000  ill. 

Ea.  18s.    Cassell. 
Living  Animals,  ed.  by  R.  Lyddeker ;  fully  ill.  Hutchinson. 

An  excellent,  up-to-date,  popular  book. 
WOOD  (Rev.  J.  O.)    Illustrated  Natural  History.    3  v. ;  1,500  ill. 

Ea.  10s.  6d.    Routledge. 
Still  of  value  for  its  clear  descriptions  and  pleasant  style. 

The  New  Illustrated  Natural  History.    [Abgmt.  of  above.] 

12s.  6d.    Routledge. 
Advanced  Zoological  Study. 

FLOWER  AND  GADOW.  Osteology  of  the  Mammalia  ;  ill.  10s.  ed.  Macmillan. 
HERTWIG  (O.)  The  Cell :  its  Anatomy  and  Physiology ;  ill.  12s.  Sonnenschein. 
LANG  (Dr.  A.)  Text-Book  of  Comparative  Anatomy.  2  pts. ;  ill. 

Ea.  17».  net.    Macmillan. 

ROLLESTON  AND  JACKSON.  Forms  of  Animal  Life;  ill.  36s.  Clarendon  Press. 
THOMSON  (J.  A.)  The  Study  of  Animal  Life.  80  ill.  7s.  6d.  Murray. 

Invaluable  for  the  adult  student.      Deals  with  several  questions  in  ad- 
vanced Zoology  very  lucidly. 

WIEDKRSHEIM.  Comparative  Anatomy  of  Vertebrates.  12s.  6d.  Macmillan. 
Zoological  Articles  contrib.  to  The  Encyclopcedia  Dritannica.  12s.  6d.  Black. 

By  Ray  Lankester,  Sollas,  von  Graff,  Hubrecht,  Bourne,  and  Herdman. 


GENERAL   ZOOLOGY— continued. 

Popular  Non-systematic  Treatises. 

ALLEN  (Grant)    Science  in  Arcady.  3s.  6d.    Routledge. 

BUCKLAND  (F.)   Curiosities  of  Natural  History.  4  ser.      Ea.  3s.  6d.   Macmillan. 
BUCKLEY  (Arabella)    Life,  and  her  Children  ;  ill.  6s.    Stanford. 

Winner  in  Life's  Race,    i!  vols. ;  ill.  Ea.  4s.  ijd.    Stanford. 

LUBBOCK  (Sir  J.)    [Lord   Avebury].     Senses,   Instincts,  and    Intelligence  of 
Animals.  5s.    Paul. 

Chiefly  insects.    See  also  his  Ants,  Bees,  and  Wasps.    5s.    Paul. 
LVDDEKER  (R.)    Phases  of  Animal  Life,  past  and  present.  6s.    Longmans. 

MORGAN  (C.  Lloyd)    Animal  Sketches.  3*.  6d.    Arnold. 

ROMANES  (G.  J.)    Animal  Intelligence.  5s.    Paul. 

TAYLOR  (J.  B.)    The  Playtime  Naturalist ;  ill.  3s.  6d.    Routledge. 

WHITE  (Rev.  Gilbert)    Natural  History  and  Antiquities  of  Selborne. 

2*. ;  with  6  coloured  plates,  3s.  6d.    Routledge. 
WOOD  (Rev.  J.  G.)    Common  Objects  of  the  Country. 

Is  ;  with  the  plates  coloured,  3s.  6d.    Routledge. 

Homes  without  Hands.  10s.  6rf.    Longmans. 

On  the  habitations  of  animals. 


MARINE  ZOOLOGY. 
Generally. 

AGASSIZ  (Eliz.  C.  and  A.)    Seaside  Studies  ;  ill.  $3.    Boston,  U.S. 

FIOUIER  (L.)    The  Ocean  World  ;  ill.  3s.  6d.    Cassell. 

GOSSE  (P.  H.)    Manual  of  Marine  Zoology  of  British  Isles.    2  pts. 

Ea.  7s.  M.    Gurney. 

The  Aquarium ;  ill.  7s.  6d.    Gurney. 

A  Year  at  the  Shore.    36  col.  pi.  o.p.    Daldy. 

HARTWIG  (G.)   The  Sea  and  its  Living  Wonders.    315  ill.       10s.  6d.    Longmans. 

HARVEY  (W.  H.)    The  Seaside  Book.    S3  ill.  5s.    Gurney. 

HICKSON  (S.  J.)    The  Fauna  of  the  Deep  Sea  ;  ill.  2s.  6d.    Paul. 

JONES  (T.R.)    The  Aquarium  Naturalist.    Col.  pi.  [poor].  18s.    Gurney. 

TANF.ON  (M  J    The  World  of  the  Sea  ;  ill.  6s.    Cassell. 

TAYLOR  (J.  E.)    Half-hours  at  the  Seaside ;  ill.  2s.  6rf.    W.  H.  Allen. 

THOMPSON  (Sir  C.  W.)    The  Depths  of  the  Sea  ;  ill.    [For  experts.] 

31s.  6d.    Macmillan. 

WOOD  (Rev.  J.  G.)    Common  Objects  of  the  Seashore. 

Is. ;  with  the  plates  coloured,  3s.  6d.    Routledge. 
Zoophytes  (Coelenterata). 

GREENE  (Prof.  J.  R.)    Manual  of  the  Coelenterata.    39  ill.  5s.    Longmans. 

HINCKS  (Rev.  T.)    British  Hydroid  Zoophytes.    2  v.  ;  67  pi.          42s.    Gurney. 

JOHNSTON  (G.)    History  of  British  Zoophytes,    2  v. ;  74  pi.  42s.    Gurney. 

PENNINOTON  (A.  S.)    Nat.  Hist,  of  British  Zoophytes.    24  pi.       10s.  6d.    Reeve. 

Sponges. 

BOWERKANK  (J.  S.)   Monograph  of  British  Spongiadae.    4  v. ;  146  pi.       Ray  Soc. 
JOHNSTON  (G.)    Hist,  of  British  Sponges  and  Lithophytes.    25  col.  pi. 

30s.    Gurney. 

v.  LENDENFELD  (R.)    Monograph  of  Horny  Sponges.    50  pi.  Royal  Soc. 

NORMAN  (Rev.  A.  M.)    Monograph  of  the  Spongiadae.  Ray  Soc. 


MAEINE  ZOOLOGY— continued. 

Corals,  etc.    (Actinozoa,  Anthozoa). 

DANA  (J.  D.)    Corals  and  Coral  Islands.  7s.  6'?.    Low. 

DARWIN  (C.)    Structure  and  Distribution  of  Coral  Reefs.      2s.   Ward  and  Lock. 

KENT  (W.  S.)    The  Great  Barrier  Reef  of  Australia.    73s.  net.          W.  H.  Allen. 

A  very  handsome  work  on  corals,  coral-  polyps,  and  other  marine  organisms 

inhabiting  the  vast  rampart  of  coral  origin  extending  for  1,200  miles  along  the 

Queensland  coast.    16  beautiful  col.  plates  and  48  mezzotints. 

Hydrozoa. 

AI.LMAN  (G.  J.)    Manual  of  Gymnoblastic  Hydroids.     23  col.  pi.  Ray  Soc. 

BROOKS  (W.  K.)    Life-History  of  the  Hydromedusae.    8  pi.    21s.  Boston,  U.S. 

FORBES  (E.)    British  Naked-eye  Medusae.    13col.pl.  Ray  Soc. 

GOSSE  (P.  H.)    British  Sea-Anemones  and  Madrepores.   Col.  pi.  21s.   Gurney. 

HCXLEY  (T.  H.)    The  Oceanic  Hydrozoa.    12  pi.  Ray  Poc. 

Echinoderms. 

FORBES  (E.)   British  Star-fishes  and  other  Echinoderms.    120  ill.    15s.   Gurney. 
ROMANES  (G.  J.)    Jelly-fish,  Star-fish,  and  Sea-urchins.  5s.    Paul. 

Crustacea :  Malacostraca  (only). 

BATE  AND  WESTWOOD.       British   Sessile-eyed   Crustacea,   Sand-hoppers,  etc. 

2  v. ;  ill.  60s.    Gurney. 

BELL(T.)    British  Stalk-eyed  Crustacea.    174111.  25s.    Gurney. 

HUXLEY  (T.  H.)    The  Cray-fish.    82  ill.  5s.    Paul. 

Treated  as  a  biological  "  type  " 
LEACH  (W.  E.)    Malacostraca  Podophthalmata  Brit.    Pts.  i.-xvii.  pub.  1815-20  ; 

Pts.  xviii-xix.  pub.  1875.    With  54  pi.  of  crabs,  lobsters,  prawns,  etc. 
STEBBING(T.  R.  R.)    History  of  the  Crustacea ;  ill.'  5s.    Paul. 

Mollusca. 
ALDER  AND  HANCOCK.    British  Nudibranch  Mollusca.  Ray  Soc. 

With  82  plates,  some  of  which  are  coloured. 
FORBES  AND  HANLET.   Historyof  British  Mollusca  and  Shells.  4v.  130s.  Gurney. 

With  203  plates.    Bdn.  with  the  plates  coloured,  £13. 
JEFFREYS  (J.  G.)    British  Conchology.    5  v.  80s.    Gurney. 

With  147  plates.    Coloured  edition,  £5  5s. 
REEVE  (Lovell).    Elements  of  Conchology.    2  v. ;  62  col.  pi.  56s.    Reeve. 

The  best  general  introductory  book  on  the  science. 

WOODWARD  (S.  P.)   Manual  of  the  Mollusca.  300  ill.  [Best  small  general  book.] 

6s.  6d.     Lockwood. 

For  the  advanced  study  of  all  the  above  families,  the  Challenger  Reports  (Eyre  and 
Spottiswoode)  are  of  essential  value. 


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